[IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

[Anarion]

Oh, Kyouko taken by surprise. Kazelia very gently extricates herself from the fox's arms and goes over to Cassian, where she gives him a big hug! (this may crush one of his ice flowers if he's not careful)

"Oh Cassie-Wassie! It's so good to see you! Daddy doesn't send you out of the kingdom much does he?" She looks over at Oberon with a shake of her head. That helps hide the moment of frustration that she's feeling. Like, what even works on him?! But Cassian's so easy, so he gets all the focus. She shouted Cassie-Wassie very loudly, certainly enough that every princess in the room hears it. In fact, she's speaking to him more loudly in general than she needs to be. "Casswass, where's Mr. Snowy? I thought Daddy doesn't send you out alone because you wouldn't sleep alone and we were all afraid that Mr. Snowy would get dirty if you took him out of the castle."

She gives him a look with her new eyes. It's not spoken out loud, but he can see it. Damage control, really? it shouts to him. He could do better than being Oberon's little majordomo and he should darn well know it. "You're mistaken, though Cassie-Wassie. The eyes don't have anything to do with Alina. You can thank Daddy for those. When he hit me so hard that it pushed my spirit straight to the outside. The eyes were a 'side effect' of coming back here, you see." She looks over at Oberon, musters up all her courage that she possibly can and gives him a little wave. That was hard.

[PhoeKun]

"Announcing the Princess Rita von Catabas of Askaia and her guest... erm, her guest? Do I have... oh. Oh! Sorry, sorry. Her date, Alina Cascade."

Immediately, heads all throughout the ballroom turn. Immediately, mouths fall open. The spotlight descends. And for one horrible instant, Alina seizes up. G-guest? Date? Not even... they don't even think she's a... the thought is interrupted by the feeling of fingers entwining with hers. Alina glances to her left and sees Rita smiling, and then everything else, even Oberon, falls away. She's so beautiful. Just so incredibly beautiful, more than Alina's ever seen her. Or, or is it just that she's noticing now.

Alina breaks into a huge smile of her own, and suddenly the pair don't need any stage lighting to shine. As one, they lift their joined hands up to show the glass bands on each of their forearms linked together by their closeness, and a pair of songbirds made from multi-colored light burst forth from the air just above them and come to rest on their shoulders. Flawlessly, both princesses step into mirrored curtsys that emphasize how perfectly matched their dresses are. They hold it for one second, two, three, and like a dance (did they practice this? Did they plan it?) they stand back up and start descending the stairs in lock step with one another.

Murmurs run across the dance floor, and for one shining perfect moment that not even the lack of truly friendly faces can truly spoil, everything about the Gala is just the way Alina had dared to imagine it. She has to suppress a giggle as she gets close enough to start hearing some of the whispers. Is that really Alina? But I thought she was dead! No no, just in jail. She got captured by that Watch Dragon in the middle of some new harebrained scheme or another. Oh, well I heard she turned into a statue! Are we really just going to sit here and ignore the fact that she's here with Rita? Oh yeah, what's up with that? They're so not compatible! But they look sooooo precious together! They're even wearing Askaian dresses! More like what she thinks Askaian dresses are. Well then, she must think they're beautiful, 'cause gosh.

Rita reaches the bottom of the steps with her date, and they offer another curtsy to the floor at large. As if on cue, there's a swell of music, and Rita tugs very gently on Alina's arm. Well of course they're going to dance. They have heads to turn, after all! In all the wide reaches of Hyperborea, were there any princesses who could match these two for dancing? Only Helya, surely, and she would only consent in the first place if you somehow framed it as a challenge. They steal hearts along with eyes, arms entwined and dresses swishing in harmony. Alina's eyes steal away every couple of steps to sweep across the room. This was Rita's night when you got right down to it, and she was very ready to let her girlfriend(!!) run the show, but it would still be a good idea to know who from across the various kingdoms had come (or managed the mazes, at least) and who if anybody she might be able to recruit for the most important task in her life.

But even if it was nobody at all, and even if Oberon and his obnoxious twit of a sun managed to cast a shadow over the entire night, it won't matter. She'll still have this moment. She'll still have this dance. And that's enough to have been worth making the trip for.

[Thanqol]

Adila!

You are waylaid on the stairs!

This is actually, despite what you might think, a good and useful thing. You see, you— in the plural—have managed to get lost, but somebody doesn’t want to admit that. That person is Iron Star.

It’s not difficult to get lost in the Labyrinth Tower! Thus, the name. Stairways lead up to passageways which lead to other stairways. Sometimes you have to go down to end up going back up. And there are mirrors everywhere! Mirrors, perspective tricks, hidden passageways... it’s a very confusing place!

And that’s when the bronze mechanoids pour down the stairs, all pincers and gyrating limbs and mouthless faces. Tick, tick, tick, tock! Hiss go the valves, tick tock tick go the hearts, swish ruffle swish go the little black dresses, and snip swish snip go those scissor fingers.

“Hello!” Princess Hornet yells, cheerfully, riding on the shoulders of one of the nightmare death machines. She’s wearing a poofy purple dress with oil stains and soot all over her opera gloves, and she has stitched on her own pockets and tool belt. Her safety goggles have been built into a masquerade mask, all silver and diamonds, and her hair has been... well, an attempt was made to tidy it. A valiant and doomed attempt. “Welcome to my house, Friend!”

Princess Adila isn't totally out of her element here. The Bazaar is a shifting, confusing place - oftentimes by criminal design - and the Watch Fortress has more than a few tricks of its own. She's rapidly forming a mental map of the place and recognizing junctions they've been through multiple times. She is however experiencing three (3) problems:

- There are mirrors everywhere and she is still kind of bashfully proud of herself every time she sees it, which is an emotion she doesn't exactly want to push away given how new and pleasant it is
- There are mirrors everywhere, which means she gets really interesting multi-angled shots of Princess Iron Star and herself in plus one proximity
- Princess Iron Star doesn't take mumbled +um, excuse me, we should maybe think about going right+'s as an instruction.

So she's equal parts flustered, spooked and glad to see Princess Hornet. Hornet is a bit of a tangled cluster of emotions for her in general right now, actually. It's not that she doesn't trust her, it's that she can't trust her. You know about artificers, Adila, especially emotionally unstable ones that have decided they want to get your attention. It's all rainbows and pirouettes until somebody builds a glass dragon and teaches it to hate the world...

+Hello! Friend!+ Adila thinks awkwardly, a little bit deer-in-headlights-y. She has to shake off the trained response to slap anything vaguely technological out of Hornet's hands, despite her training being really intensely in focus right now. Like Hornet said, this was her house, and the Gala besides, and it wasn't like Princess Hornet's didn't already have all the terrifying technology she could possibly need. +Princess Iron Star, Princess Hornet, have you met? Haha. Probably. Um. So where did you say we were going, Princess Star? I'm sure Princess Hornet would love to help. Haha. Haha. Ha.+

[Raz_Fox]

Kazelia!

Cassian puffs himself up indignantly. “Kazzie! I haven’t needed Mr. Snowy in almost a year now, and I made sure he was with Kelpie the Nightmare Horse before I left! So he doesn’t get... lonely...”

Ripples of suppressed laughter radiate throughout the room, and Cassian practically goes indigo. “K-Kassie! I mean... I’m still right,” he says, flailing for a safe conversational foothold.

But it’s too late.

You are in Big Sister mode now. You have an ample supply of smothering, condescension, embarrassing anecdotes, and sickly-sweet compliments.

He is doomed.

***

Alina!

Well, let’s see who’s in the foreground, shall we?

Ooooh, there’s Gale! She’s wearing a golden sheepskin evening cloak and a silver-threaded suit, with impressive pauldrons! Her pale hair’s up in two huge buns and her riding boots nearly come up to her knees! Her kingdom is Alvonia, neighbors of Rowan, full of mist-haunted moors and knights errant. They’re much showier and less practical than the Rowani, but she’d be helpful in a pinch, if she wasn’t still blushing over Cassian.

Then there’s Nemie, the princess of the mermaids! Kazelia saw her earlier; it looks like she finally talked her mother into letting her get a gill piercing! Isn’t that exciting? And she’s... looking at you like she wants you to drown. And— gosh, didn’t she— didn’t she have a crush on Rita? um. whoops.

Haha okay let’s keep going before Nemie murders you with her eyes. Esmeralda has vanished into the passageways upstairs to plot her next attack; she’s a bushy-haired, saucy mystery, and no mistake. Then there’s Kyouko, and Natasha in the tortoiseshell dress, and of course everyone’s moms chuckling and making comments about how evil Oberon is.

Can’t they see how much different he is than the likes of the foxes?

***

Adila!

“My sister is here,” Iron Star growls, viciousness in her voice. But more than that, too. Hurt. Betrayal. “I’m going to shake her into seven pieces.”

Okay, first of all, that’s not very helpful! Iron Star has a bunch of sisters. And cousins. And she’s not picky about calling cousins sisters. In short... it could be any devil princess she aims to beat up!

But the bigger question is why? Like, if she wants to start a fight, she doesn’t have to come to the Gala of all places! Something here just doesn’t make a lot of sense.

“Hang on,” Hornet says, gleefully. “I have a Family Detection Buddy for just such an occasion!”

[PhoeKun]

Step, two, three and step, two, three and spin, two, three, and lean!

"I really thought I'd be more ready for this," says Alina while she hangs on Rita's arm so low that her braids are brushing against the tiled floor, "But just look at them there... giggling. Like he's some gallant rogue here to sweep them off their feet."

The music swells, and Alina answers its call. She rises back up to her feet, jumps so that Rita can lift her into the air for a moment, and falls gracefully back down to the ground to immediately twirl, flourish, and twirl again with her beautiful and most excellent partner. She flashes a smile Gale, trots on with a series of impossibly complicated steps and works in an apologetic little shrug in Nemie's direction (which does nothing whatsoever to lessen that death glare), and tiptoes, dips, and ducks her way across the floor to at least mark where Esmeralda slipped off to. All the while, she smiles and glitters in Rita's direction. The darkness of her whispering doesn't reach her face.

Some list of allies. Weird and a little bit suspicious how, of all the queens and princesses that had gathered here at the Gala, not a single one of them were of the group that might have been predisposed to listen to Alina or her story at this point. Of course, maybe that's just because Helya and Tashanna and Dandy and even her adjutants like Tara or Vivian are all out there handling other problems for the precise reason that they do all understand on some level the threat that Oberon represents. But it hurts to not have any of them here. It feels a lot like being right back at the start of her journey, before even Adila, erm, "arrested" her or Kazelia startled her half to death by that faithful stream, when she flitted from kingdom to kingdom alternating between getting sympathetic pats (then being sent on her way a week later) and having doors outright shut in her face.

And this? This would probably be more of a return to the latter. She squeezes Rita's waist and hand. She leans her face in close, as if to kiss her girlfriend, but whispers into her ear instead.

"It's just not fair. My mother was friends with almost all of them, or close enough. And they don't care. None of them even care. She's been gone for so long now... how can they just smile like that?"

[Thanqol]

Adila!

“My sister is here,” Iron Star growls, viciousness in her voice. But more than that, too. Hurt. Betrayal. “I’m going to shake her into seven pieces.”

Okay, first of all, that’s not very helpful! Iron Star has a bunch of sisters. And cousins. And she’s not picky about calling cousins sisters. In short... it could be any devil princess she aims to beat up!

But the bigger question is why? Like, if she wants to start a fight, she doesn’t have to come to the Gala of all places! Something here just doesn’t make a lot of sense.

“Hang on,” Hornet says, gleefully. “I have a Family Detection Buddy for just such an occasion!”

+Are you o-+ the thought starts reflexively towards Iron Star, but shudders out into confusion. She's been doing a bunch of tearful empathic confessions lately but she has to consider the very real possibility that that is just Princess Alina's influence and not, you know, cool. And besides, Devil culture clearly has a way of dealing with whatever this disagreement is about. That way being epic smash fights in the midst of gigantic doom fortresses in defiance of magical curse injunctions - okay, maybe Alina's way has things to recommend it. But, um. It's not raining. And Princess Iron Star doesn't look like she's in the mood for dancing -

But you are.

The thought propels her forwards like a push to the small of the back.

She catches Princess Iron Star's hands in her talons and stumble-sweeps her through a doorway and out onto a sweeping, open stage-balcony a little above but in full view of the dance floor below. Some goblin lighting tech is on her game because she instantly angles about a huge spotlight to crash them both in a brilliant white halo just as the music starts to pick up.

She's here now. She's being bold. It doesn't matter if it was spur of the moment, if she didn't plan for this - she came here tonight to break hearts and dance with princesses. And she has in her arms the one princess who she can't break.

She turns for just a moment to look directly at Princess Hornet with a stare that catches her to her soul. +Use your device. And then come back here. You're next.+

Then she arcs around to stare directly into the eyes of Princess Iron Star with eyes that don't need a warrant to be dangerous. +Until then we are going to talk, Princess.+

The music starts.

She leads.

[Anarion]

Kazelia gives her little brother a wry smile. "Oh good, I'm so glad he's with Kelpie, I'd have been sick with worry if Mr. Snowy were all by himself!" A light laugh, the gathered princesses know it's just family bonding, you know how it is, a little ribbing from one side, a bit of big sisterly embarrassment and just like that nobody thinks anything of what Cassian had been saying. Besides, Alina is there sweeping Rita around the dance floor and that brings a real smile to Kazelia's face. The kind that hits the eyes and can't be faked.

She steps over to Cassian and picks him up, taking his arms in hers. "Ah, Casswass, I love your cute little bow tie!" She's leading him around the dance floor in a gentle dance. It's not the sort that would draw attention from Alina and Rita twirling about from princess to princess, it's slower, more gentle, a big sister getting to spend time with her little brother after a long absence, a chance to talk in rhythm, and quietly to each other. "Now, put your foot there, and we'll use a little magic to get ourselves in rhythm like old times, there you go."

When they are close, she leans in with more sincerity than all this show she's putting on for the princesses. "Ah Cassian, it really is good to see you, you know. Have you been lonely? I met father wandering about, I heard Azora has been all over, Asteria was chasing me, more or less, as was Eska, and I've heard that Kaja hasn't been in favor and was under Asteria's command. Plus void knows where Morgina has gotten herself off to since the fight in Feloria. It must have been hard having to hold down a kingdom. I wish I could come help. I would if Father weren't there, you know. You'd do well leading a kingdom here, you're a natural to all the Hyperborea princess stuff, better at all the pageantry than any of us sisters have ever been. I bet you'd love gossiping with all the queens too, and in another five or ten years, they'll all be mooning over you, mark my words."

She gives him a smile. And then as they dance, the song starts speeds up into a bit of a tango and Kazelia starts humming in harmony with the music. She gives Cassian a twirl and spins after him, leans him down and and back up, humming and letting herself flow into the music. Her harmony is a little lower and deeper than the band, but fits right under it. All the while, she keeps on smiling at her little brother, who could be so handsome and wonderful if he were free.

[Raz_Fox]

Alina!

The music picks up, all quick drumbeats and goblin electrostrings, perfect for a tango. Perfect, in fact, for a dragon and a devil dancing together. What an oddly specific thought! But focus on getting the fast steps right. A princess is beautiful, and a misstep that leads you to twist your ankle in front of everyone? Decidedly not beautiful.

"Look, we all thought..." Rita looks guilty for a moment, even as you entwine your fingers and lean back, holding each other up, before pulling close together. "Even with everyone leaving, we thought it would be like, you know, Kyouko. Sure, we knew that Ilumina was frozen, but... it wasn't until they showed up and attacked us that we-- that I realized that they weren't just here to laugh and humiliate us and tie us up. If we decided to attack Ilumina, do you think anyone else would get involved if they didn't have feelings about me or you?"

Back and forth, feet darting, if either of you make a wrong step you're going to step on each other, but you don't, of course you don't! You're in sync.

"Plus, for the past few years, the weather's been getting worse and worse. Everyone's been busy with repairs from storms sweeping in. Which... well, um, remember what you told me about Feloria?"

How could you forget? Oberon boiling into a horrible storm, flesh becoming smoke and grasping hands... no wonder everyone's desperate to just have a good time. It's a princess's job to go out and help rebuild houses and save their people from being trapped beneath debris, and it's a queen's job to... well, you're still not sure exactly what queens do, but it's super important! There's a lot of meetings and being worried and serving in soup kitchens! And if Oberon's making it a habit to turn into stormclouds like that... well, it's understandable. Frustrating, maybe. But understandable.

(Plus, with the Roc on his side--)

"So they have to choose whether they believe the smooth-talking, sleazy jerk or the princess who is known for convoluted heists and has the crown jewels of Jedad right now." She makes an adorably frustrated little face, sticking her tongue out and glancing up at the ceiling. Then she blinks.

"Hey, Alina... is that Adila up there?"

***

Adila!

One two three swing one two three dip one two three swing one two three shimmy

Look out! If you get any hotter on this dance floor, you'll have to arrest yourself for outshining everyone and causing a public disturbance! Iron Star's... she lets you take the lead. Which is super not like her. She's the proverbial unmovable object, too cool to be affected by anything because allowing the world around you to change you is the most uncool thing, actually. Hands in her pockets like a thug, a club dangling from a chain around her wrist, a leather jacket with her gang's symbols emblazoned on it... gosh, Adila, don't get too hot and bothered over those thoughts! You're supposed to be sweeping her off her feet, officer!

"I wish you'd showed up in the underground, you know." ...oh, uh. Huh. She was serious when she made that invitation? All those times? "It's wrecked. Actual wrecked. And we're all fighting over the scraps of the towers."

You spin her out towards the banister; she scrapes the tip of her boot against the smooth hardwood until it sparks and she comes to a stop, and then she advances on you, leading with her shoulders and umph. "Riders showed up. Oberon wanted to meet with the grandmothers... tricked them. Made them vanish. And Black Serpent was playing along with him the whole time. She's got Rider support down there, trying to make all of us follow Oberon's rules. What kind of sister does that? What kind of devil? We don't do rules. Oh, but as long as she's the only one who doesn't have to follow the rules, she's fine with making the rest of us dance her dance."

Her grip on your talons tightens, and it's only a conscious choice that she doesn't squeeze hard enough to make you whimper. She could do that. She's always been that kind of strong. "And then she comes here? I'm going to pick her up by the ankles and break Oberon's head with hers!" Ah. There we go. There's the betrayal. The fury. Of course she doesn't care about the rules which keep the gala from exploding. All these princesses are only not pursuing all of their vendettas with swords and magic fireworks and tearful outbursts because they're bound by social convention!

The one thing that has no grip on Iron Star at all.

"You're not bad, for a Watchwoman," she says, chucking your chin. The air between you crackles and nearly bursts into flame. Her mane is so shaggy and that jacket is pulled tight around her in all the right places and she's the opposite of you, gorgeous and elegant, a leviathan of the deep bursting through dusk-lit waves. But the both of you are strong. Strong enough to tear apart this whole tower between the two of you, magic mummy spells be darned.

"Don't get in my way." When the next word comes out, it's dry and hoarse, as if from disuse. "...please. I'd feel bad busting your head, too." Which is as close as Iron Star can come to say you're cute. But. Uh. It's. Conveyed. And she glances away first.

***

Kazelia!

"Well, yeah," Cassian says with a self-conscious little laugh and eyeroll. "If Dad weren't around... but, um, that's not going to happen, you know." He almost sounds wistful. Which becomes guilt and fear that he's wistful over that. "He's got his eyes on this magic staff. It lets you open magic portals wherever in the world you want! And Azora's almost got it for him. He'll be able to waltz right into Ourania's bedroom with his entire army once he has it. And then the rest of the world. Can you imagine? Rider strike forces wherever there's insurrection, effortless transport back to our kingdom; we'll have it all, just like that!" He goes into a moment of private reverie, imagining all the flowers he can freeze and arrange just so in his garden.

Also... that's, uh

That's not how the Caduceus works, Cassian

...does your father know?

Is that just the public line he's telling everyone, or does he actually think the Caduceus is just a fancy teleport staff?

Is your father going to unleash hell on Hyperborea over a mistake?

(I mean, that's not the first time he's done that. Right, Alina?)

"You can still make things right tonight," he says, letting you dip him down almost to the floor. "He's already won. You and me? We're just marking time until the hourglass runs out. And there's not going to be anybody to fight back tomorrow."

[Anarion]

"He's already won. You and me? We're just marking time until the hourglass runs out. And there's not going to be anybody to fight back tomorrow."

"Cassian, oh Cassian." Kazelia looks right into his eyes. Those deep dark pools of stars. Turned and twisted by Oberon. But not right now. Right now their hearts are connected. They might even stay connected. That vast empty concert hall for Kazelia's song has Alina in it now, and maybe Cassian can come in too, for a little while. "Everybody keeps saying things like that. 'he's already won' 'it's too late' 'just give up' and on and on. That's what he relies on though. Oh, don't get me wrong, Father is very scary, dangerous, tough in a fight. He's the personification of a dark power that can guide us all through the void, I hardly thought he'd be a pushover! But all these things he does, it's to make sure that people don't even think about fighting him, Cassian. He didn't kill people in Illumina, or banish them. He held them prisoner, threatened their loved ones and forced them to serve him because of their fear. He makes the world cold and dark so people don't think there's any hope even when he's not present. That's how he kept all of us so long. He takes the hope out of your heart and fills it with the cold and the void until you can't see anything but his world."

Kazelia gives a wry shake of her head and lets Cassian dip her into a bend over backwards as they dance the electric tango, and she twirls close to him, a room full of light, life, and beauty. She looks in his eyes and lets him see the fire burning behind her. "I'm never going down that way. No matter what. I'm going to clean up the damage that Father has done. I already started in Feloira. Even if Hyperborea is frozen to nothing, I'll go somewhere else and I'll find the power to start its thaw. If I'm destroyed, I'll go down fighting. If Oberon hurts my friends or my family, I'll rescue you. I might not be up to it yet, I'm probably not really, but I'm going to get there. With my friends, with anyone who will join us, with the whole of Hyperborea behind us, and I hope with you and our sisters too, Cassian. If you come away from tonight with anything, let it be this:"

"Never give in to despair, not when there's even the tiniest chance you could win."

[Thanqol]

+Let me tell you about rules.+

Stone cracks underfoot. It takes a lot of power to register a pull, a lift, a spin. A little of the surplus makes its way into the tiles. Waves of power and force that run through each others' bodies and discharge into the earth below them. Pushing, pushing, pushing - looking for the point that's too far. But the ballroom broke before the princesses did.

+If I was to put you under arrest and chain you to a wall,+ thought Adila with the infinite courage that came with moving too quickly for her doubts to catch up with her. +you could of course break out at any second. The chains can't hold you. Honestly, they can't hold any of the princesses I catch. Any of them can struggle, flex or seduce their way out of them in less than ten minutes if they decided it was serious. But every one of them I take prisoner quietly wears their chains without complaint or resistance. And you're the only one who doesn't understand why.+

All of her ribbons burn brilliant red. Cracks run through the balcony. Now Adila is letting herself be known. Letting herself be felt.

+Those princesses obey my rules because they know if they don't then anything is on the table. If they refuse to play nicely after I've beaten them with both wings tied behind my back then the next time I'll need to escalate. We can try again with my foot on their neck if we have to. They know,+ corners of fire seemed to touch at the edge of those crimson ribbons as they started to burn all the way up to white, +that the rules are to protect you from me.+

Aflame in black and silver, Adila stared into Princess Iron Star's eyes. She shifted her weight.

The floor broke. The beautiful tiles shattered under their feet. And underneath... clockwork. Cogs and machinery and gears, click-click-clicking away. Adila relaxed her grip a little, let the circular motion of the grinding gears carry them through the next beats of the dance. The balcony fell away in glittering, crashing waves to reveal enormous, secret engines.

+And I am not the only one with rules.+ thought Adila. +You want to test why Hobling Keep has rules? In front of its Princess, no less? They've done it up nicely for the occasion but scratch the surface and see what you'll find: traps, wards, defenses enough to hold out against the work of Devil Grandmothers. You think you can accomplish in an evening what Princess Eupheria and the Caduceus couldn't over years of siege?+ she pauses to let the fact that she knows those names sink in. +Do you think I want to spend my evening negotiating with Princess Hornet for your release? Are you going to wear your steel chains gracefully, Princess Iron Star, or are you going to make me break out the bronze?+

Each step had been getting faster and they were wheeling and arcing together across the clockwork gears, tumbling into each other with the force and clarity of comets. Their feet were sure beneath them, the machinery upholding even their celestial strength.

+I will break Oberon,+ Princess Adila promised. +He has demanded the use of my full strength, and he will get it. But he uses Hyperborea's rules to shield himself. He dares take our restraint for weakness and he will see his mistake when the princesses align against him. You will not make the same mistake, Princess Iron Star. You will realize why I am about to dance with Princess Hornet rather than fighting her. You will realize why I came dressed for dancing even though my heart is ready for war. It is not because I am soft and need a night off from my duties. It is because the rules are a weapon and I will not go into battle unarmed.+

She swept Princess Iron Star around into one final sweep, heart pounding, chest heaving. As confident as seemed, as natural and powerful as her thoughts have been, she still wants Princess Iron Star to hit back at her. She wants her to argue - fight - win. She wants to feel that strength with that same conviction, to be shown that she's wrong. She doesn't think she is - she feels invincible. But she hopes she's found a point where Iron Star is equally invincible. It'd be a disaster if she had, but nevertheless...

+And you are going to think of something better to do with the evening than getting thrown into a dungeon,+ thought Princess Adila breathlessly. +Your sister doesn't want to follow the rules either? Goad her. Make her break the rules. Bring Hobling Keep down on her head. See what happens.+

[Talk Sense with Sense: 12]

[PhoeKun]

"I didn't hear you complaining while we were taking those jewels again."

Alina grins, which is every bit as charming and disarming as you could ask for in a princess, but it does precious little to hide the guilt that washes over her face. It's a heck of a thing for your girlfriend to drop on you, you know? Well yes, Alina, the thing of it is, you kind of were a bit of an awful person for most of your life, which is why no one will take you at your word now that you're in trouble. There's real hurt here, too, seeing again that even Rita needed the in-her-face wake up call to stop being part of that, but she covers this up in a playful boop to her little kitty nose. Love would not be love if it asked someone to be perfect and one hundred percent on your side at all times, and Alina's already forgiven her three times over besides. No good dwelling on it, then. Step, step, lean! The feeling passes.

"I guess I just... wish there was an easier way to convince everybody that we've all got the same problem, and that he's over by the punch bowl, doing... some... oh my goodness."

It is a testament to Alina's skill and synergy with Rita that she manages to keep dancing without falling on her face. As it is, her mouth hangs agape and her neck cranes this way and that to keep her eyes on the upper level where Adila is dancing with Princess Iron Star and, honestly? Putting her and Rita to shame. That dress looks even better in motion than she thought it would. Which is saying a lot! When she'd seen the designs, the image in her head had been breathtaking. And yet, here she was, or there she was, or... wherever she is, bold and gorgeous and free in the way that makes Alina's heart light up. She's never really, it must be said, had much patience for Devilish fashions or their attendant aesthetics, but together the pair of them have such a, a power that it manages to make Alina doubt for a moment whether or not she could hold anyone's attention if she was put next to them. And in that moment she knew that all of the dancing and the makeover in Feloria had been worth all that it had taken.

By the end of the song, she's beaming and breathless and wrapped so tightly up in Rita that she's in danger of forgetting there might be something else she needs to do here besides kissing. She sneaks one in to satisfy herself for the moment.

"We should mingle, I guess. But save me a dance, ok? I am not losing to Adila of all people. Not tonight."

[Raz_Fox]

Kazelia!

“Well said, Kazelia,” your father says. His voice is silver on velvet, sinking warmly into your spine. Your shoulders relax despite themselves. “We must never give into despair. One day the people of Hyperborea will accept us as neighbors and, dare I suggest, even as grooms. Speaking of which, Cassian! I think the young lady in the fetching sheepskin is dying to dance with you. It wouldn’t do to keep her waiting.”

Cassian disentangles himself briskly, opens his mouth to say something to you, then thinks better of it and beats a hasty retreat, leaving you with your father. His starry eyes are cold, but his smile is... disconcertingly paternal.

“Kazelia. I understand that you need the opportunity to find yourself,” he says, and his voice is honey clogging up your head. “Nevertheless... I do wish you had been more circumspect in your choice of new friends. It’s never too late to reconsider the choices you have made.”

His hands on yours. The music turns stately, almost melancholy. “I only want the best for you.” He’s lying! He... he has to be... “You have always been special, Kazzy. You are all I have left of your mother.”

How... how dare he... why is your head on his shoulder...

“Come home, my little snowflake.”

***

Adila!

“Will you follow our rules, Adila?” Iron Star is the turning-point of the world. She allows you to vent your power and it breaks around her. She is black stone and veins of iron and adamant. She is a horror from beneath the earth, a chthonic seeker of vengeance arrayed in her tatterdemalion.

“Will you go masked? Veil your lights? Meet every challenge? Will you deny queen and crown and silence? Will you do as you will?”

As you will. Not as the Watch will, or would. Not as that ancient, musty Adila would. As you will. Would you shuck your own inhibitions in that wicked place beneath the earth?

She asks for your truth. She will not yield to a lesser, neither to a hypocrite. Anything else would be unworthy of her; anything else would be a challenge unmet, a will denied.

***

Alina!

Oh hello that is a lot of perfume. And an impressively taut blouse that is 90% frill. And, yes, the black scarf. It’s so long. You have a girlfriend. You have a girlfriend. You should not breathlessly ask if Esmeralda wants to show you her brig. But the frills are at eye level and she is taking the lead and she smells like far-off islands and she’s got so much bounce to her curls and, oof, is it warm in here? It’s warm in here, right?

“Help me win tonight and I’ll give you your pick of the booty,” she says, and it’s right there do not betray Rita— eep! That sure was a pick of the booty right there. And, uh, how did that scarf get wrapped around your shoulders too?? Esmeralda please you are making things very difficult and also is it a little hard to breathe??

[Thanqol]

Adila!

“Will you follow our rules, Adila?” Iron Star is the turning-point of the world. She allows you to vent your power and it breaks around her. She is black stone and veins of iron and adamant. She is a horror from beneath the earth, a chthonic seeker of vengeance arrayed in her tatterdemalion.

“Will you go masked? Veil your lights? Meet every challenge? Will you deny queen and crown and silence? Will you do as you will?”

As you will. Not as the Watch will, or would. Not as that ancient, musty Adila would. As you will. Would you shuck your own inhibitions in that wicked place beneath the earth?

She asks for your truth. She will not yield to a lesser, neither to a hypocrite. Anything else would be unworthy of her; anything else would be a challenge unmet, a will denied.

She can feel the danger. She wants to duck and soften and qualify, to step back from this frightening being she's drawn so much closer to than she ever dared allow. How had she gone this far this fast? Wasn't there a way to be brave without being that brave? To be herself without being that much herself? She's already straining against Iron Star with more strength than she has ever dared use against a living creature before. The feeling is intoxicating. It feels like trust.

Ice lies behind her; a frozen path, a frozen heart, darkness and rain. Fire stands before her and, oh, she is beautiful.

+Yes,+ thought Princess Adila. There is no going back. +I will.+

[Anarion]

His touch makes her skin crawl and she can barely meet his eyes. This isn't like Cassian, where she can so easily talk circles around him. Nor like the fight in Feloria, where she had been saving that music box with its one song so ready to wound him and then gave her all to the fight. She thought to sing it again now, but a slow dirge didn't go with the electric tango of the ball at all, nor the mood of the room, and the song died on her lips before ever coming out.

And so she was left with him. And this, this was like the creeping cold, endemic to his being. She lifts her head, meets his eyes as best she can, tries not to shiver beneath his touch, and lets him guide her on the dance floor. "If you really were just...just this, I'd...think about it." She speaks slowly. Her attention is on his face, those deep eyes. She wonders if he even dressed for the occasion or just shapeshifted to look like this? "You're not though." Kazelia lets out a breath, takes another one, shuddering. "You're not. You're a corruption. You're nothing but ice." It's hard to put anything into it, this close to him. This new Kazelia is still so uncertain. She has power, but she doesn't know how to use it, not here, not now. So she dances and shivers and tries to say something strong.

[PhoeKun]

Oh goodness.

This is a lot, ok? Like, there's just... a lot here. A lot of frills. A lot of scarf. A lot of lifting. A lot of spinning. A lot of height difference. A lot of, erm, a lot of Esmeralda. Oh goodness.

It's all Alina can do to follow along, to turn being lifted into being posed, to take three quick steps for each of Esmeralda's long and languid ones to match pace with her, to swing and cling and twirl and crane her neck farther up to look at the smolder in her eyes and not the... her... well, the frills. She is graceful, she is poised, she is very definitely wrapped in that scarf and squeezed much too tightly. She is warm and she is having trouble breathing properly and she is only blushing a little bit, ok?

But Alina also has a girlfriend who she loves very very much, and the time where she would have let herself get swept away in the arms of a tall, strong adventuress is behind her. So when she squeaks, it's not a stuttering 'um' (well. not just a stuttering 'um), and when she can't take control of the conversation, she tries again. Um? She dances on. Louder, then. Um?? She's swept low, so low that her knees disappear under Esmeralda's skirt. She 'eeps', and this finally earns her a smirk and an 'oho?' as she's dragged by a scarf back onto her feet.

"Listen, I'm... y-you know I'm always happy to help with games and schemes and stuff, but y-you should know that I'm..."

Alina's eyes flutter away. She tries not to, but winds up glancing straight at Rita anyway. It's a short glance, she goes right back to Esmeralda right after, but there's so much in it that no princess could ever miss.

"Just, you know, kind of off the market? But, um, you know I have," she swallows. Find your confidence, Alina, "Another deal that I could offer you. If... if you're interested in a real score."

[Raz_Fox]

Hornet!

You are a wonderful hostess. That’s what Mom said you should be! No showing off your experiments (but a little bit to help friends is okay and not really what she meant when she said it) and trying to have conversations (and you did, check, have a conversation) and not blowing up anything (check) and not making any mannequin doppelgängers, death machines, mild bodily harm machines, or any more Spectacles for the Encouragement of Public Speaking. (“It’s just a saying, sweetie,” she’d said, patting myself your head while you held her so tight and thought I love you bigger and better than anything in Hyperborea at her. “You’re only supposed to imagine it.”)

You are a wonderful hostess who is helping her friends and when you come back your Friend Adila is going to want to hang out with you. And maybe some engineering will be okay, like, if she has a problem and you know how you can fix it! That has to be okay, right? It has to be okay. It’s the only thing you’re good for.

That and hugs. But nobody but Mom has the patience to receive a proper hug. And you got yelled at the last time you made a Patience-Injecting Scorpion Behemoth so that everyone would learn how to sit still for proper hugs.

Adila yelled at you with her telepathy. She was concerned. And cited a lot of rules. Rules named after you. The Watch made special rules about you and that did not make you feel good at all. Even when you made things especially for them, which made them more upset! It’s confusing and upsetting and... but Adila is your Friend. She signed a contract and now it is law. See? You can make your own laws, too!

The Family Detection Buddy is working hard. You had to tweak his settings, because obviously there are families here, that’s what the event’s about! But now he has ingested hair from Iron Star’s mane and has scurried down into the ventilation. It is a tight squeeze and you need to lose the dress to follow, but you don’t mind. You even folded it neatly so Mom wouldn’t have any reason to be upset! You do not want to upset Mom. She never yells. She just gets sad. And that’s worse than ten whole dragons screaming into your brain about your fantastic light deaccelerator and its minor side effects.

Down you go, deeper and deeper, wiggling through pipes like only a goblin can, into the dark.

***

Adila!

The pact is sealed.

It’s time for the two of you to go down and wow everyone else, which you do, her arm hooked around one of your forelimbs, and—

...

Why is Hornet’s dress sitting folded next to a ventilation grate? Why is there no Hornet here? And where is the Family Detection Buddy?

***

Kazelia!

“Ice endures.” He leads. You follow. If your heart were not flickering flame... you would be lost in this moment. Lost to him. Trapped beneath his spells. “Ice preserves. Fire goes out in a dark wind, or consumes itself, but ice... ice remains when there is nothing else but the dark.”

But fire... fire also illuminates. And your heart has light enough to say: this isn’t natural. You should be standing up to him, scornful.

You shouldn’t be craving his approval. Relaxed, almost melting into his arms.

...of course he wouldn’t rely solely on his natural charm. Too much of a gamble with Alina here, and her tales of his awful deeds. He’s stacking the deck somehow. And here you are, having walked right into his trap.

“So tell me,” he says, as a goblin singer croons about how her baby skipped town without even oiling their clocks. The song’s probably not about an actual baby? “What have you and your... companions been up to?”

Spill everything, or roll to Overcome.

***

Alina!

“I am a whole lot of sea dog,” Esmeralda says in a voice like a smoldering fuse. “The more the merrier.” Which is. oh. Um. A thought. To be having. And yes Esmeralda definitely did wink at Rita in a “see you later?” sort of way and oh gosh. Rita definitely did just go red.

“I’m listening,” she adds, “but know that I will have victory over those scurvy foxes come high tide, and it’s up to you whether you want a share of the booty or to be stranded on the desert island of my bad graces, which is sometimes an actual island, if that helps you make your choice.”

[Thanqol]

Adila!

The pact is sealed.

It’s time for the two of you to go down and wow everyone else, which you do, her arm hooked around one of your forelimbs, and—

...

Why is Hornet’s dress sitting folded next to a ventilation grate? Why is there no Hornet here? And where is the Family Detection Buddy?

+...+

Hornet. Out of sight. Bad. Panic.

She wished she could just brush it off, figure 'oh that's weird' and move on with her day. She'd tried that once and a gigantic brass scorpion had put half Sable Street into comas, kidnapped Princess Shazari, and climbed the Clock Tower with her in its pincers. It had taken all afternoon for her to bring it down. And she'd done that with an afternoon's shopping! This was her home, she had her lab here!! She could be up to anything!!!

+I need to find her.+ Adila thought. She didn't want to. She'd screwed up. She'd asked Hornet to build a thing, she'd managed to fool herself into thinking that just because she was feeling confident she could be confident in other people as well - she'd decided to forget that Hornet was a menace who was capable of anything. And now she wasn't here.

Her heart clenched. She opened the grate and glanced through it, up and down, looking for any sort of trace in the dark. She gave a despairing look at Princess Iron Star as she struggled with a +sorry+, and then broke into a run.

[Look Closely: 6 Tell me about Princess Hornet's lab. How could it help me? How could it hurt me? Specifically with reference to finding my way there, if possible.]

[Anarion]

[Overcome 1+2+whatever it doesn't matter=miss]

Kazelia looks up at her father. The desire to fight him and the spell he's weaving combine to make her bold and foolish.
"We recovered from our fight on Argossa, we learned about your plans from Ourania, and we're going to find the Caduceus before you do!" She says emphatically, lifting her head off his shoulder to look in his eyes. "It doesn't even do what you think, you know! Cassian talked about it like it's just teleportation, but it's not, it turns whatever you think about or wish for into reality, and when you get it, you might beat Ourania, but you'll just end up ruining the whole world and leaving it barren like you have all those times before!"

Well, strong point so far, except for giving away everything about the Caduceus. This is the point Kazelia starts rambling though. "We're not going to let you do that! Alina is going to convince all the princesses and queen here tonight to ally against you! I've got a whole near spear full of fire and I can hear the songs you tried to cut out of us and I'm going to show the whole family what you're really like. Then we're going to sneak into Illumina and steal your own power right out from under you while you're distracted and you won't be able to finish your plan or ruin this world!"

[PhoeKun]

"Well, I um... I-I mean, obviously I'll help. It's fair, it's only fair."

By this point, Alina's turned a shade of red so intense that she could hardly be said to still be missing any of her colors at all. And not just because her traitorous mind is wandering to thoughts of boats and adventures and herself and Rita and this frankly magnificent specimen of a princess, though there's a lot of that going on upstairs right now, oh rivers lakes and waterfalls. But also, it wasn't that long ago that she and Esmeralda would have been treating with each other like peers... was it? They're both adventuring, nigh-on marauding princesses! Dungeon raids and duels snatching treasures from Shazari unsuspecting fools! So what happened to that girl? Is she really... just, gone?

And that thought makes her even more flustered, which loops back around to staring and squeaking out attempted replies which leads to more fantasizing which goes back to doubting herself and round and round again until she's just shyly nodding and tracing a finger around some of those fantastic frills and falling deeper and deeper and deeper into oblivion.

Oblivion, it turns out, carries memories of beach vacations and partly melted caramels. Tiny hands struggling to pull the wrappers free and pop the candy into Rita's waiting mouth. Collapsing into the sand in a fit of giggles. The old Alina isn't gone. Just like her lights, she's... let's say, putting herself back together. But that doesn't mean she's been erased. She takes a deep breath, and stares into that rakish, lovely face with much deeper determination this time.

"Listen," she says in a hushed voice, "I want to hit Illumina. I want to hit it hard; I'm talking maybe the greatest heist in the history of Hyperborea. I know you don't believe me about Oberon and right now I really don't care. But fact is, nobody's taken so much as a snowflake from him since he got here and it's time that stops. You're on my short list of names for a team up to do something they'll be singing about for years. Are you interested? I help you, you help me. And then if you do, I'll make sure your take is every bit as legendary as the job..."

[Raz_Fox]

Adila!

What intoxicating innocence! What delightful naivety! You think Hornet has a lab, singular?

Hornet has secret labs stashed all over the tower, each one more cleverly hidden than the last. It’s only your keen dragon senses that allow you to find one after frantic searching up and down stairwells and through mirrored passageways.

The trick to opening the wall and entering, it turns out, is figuring which Goblin Gabby Mystery doesn’t belong on the shelf. You cheat and knock them all down, and it’s “Goblin Gabby and the Secret Entrance” that turns out to be the key.

It turns out to be a mechanical lab. Arcing lightning crackling between crystals is the only light source, sending flickering shadows across a dizzying array of wrenches, nuts, runes and wires. Masks line the walls, staring down sightlessly, and it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust.

And in that moment, you already have a spear’s tip pressing into your throat.

“Designated: intruder. This is a restricted area. According to my Watch Emulation Protocols, you are now under arrest. You have the right to remain silent.”

Your eyes focus on those Rider eyes, flecked with stars. But those stars are hard, merely flecks of diamond. And the face they are set in is familiar.

It’s Kazelia.

***

Kazelia!

“We are going to talk about what Ourania told you,” your father says, lifting your chin. You have no choice but to lose yourself in his eyes. “At length. But there will be time enough for that after the Gala.” Stars wheel and fall in that endless empty void. “And you won’t even need to sneak in. You’ll join us there before the end of the evening.”

Then he presses the amulet against your forehead, his opera cloak veiling the motion as he dips you low, just another move in the dance, and your mind goes white snow falling forever.

...

You’re over by the buffet, and your memories of how you got there are locked tight behind iron bars. There is something inside your head waiting. A command. But when you try to touch it your mind slides away.

Hypnosis. Of course. He’s layering hypnotic lulling over every word he says, and once he had you primed, he gave you some sort of order. One that you will have to follow.

And when you look across the dance floor, you see he has a new partner. One whose eyes are drooping and is leaning into him helplessly.

It’s Rita.

And that’s when Alina spins across the room and plants her face right in your cleavage.

***

Alina!

“One good turn,” Esmeralda purrs. “You spin Kazelia into my arms by the end of the night, all wrapped up in your pretty little ribbons, and I’ll back you up on the Ilumina heist.”

And then she spins you! She pulls the scarf like the line on a top and you go spinning across the dance floor, over all those careful maze lines, your skirt spinning out and your hair floofing.

Luckily, Kazelia catches you before you can collide with the buffet table. With her chest. Which is where your face is. But, poor dizzy little thing, it probably takes you a minute to get your head back in order.

[Anarion]

Kazelia starts when Alina spins into her. She hadn’t been looking around her, fixing her eyes instead on Rita and trying to make sense of Oberon’s plans and how she could figure out what he’d done to her. Ugh, she shouldn’t have danced with him, she wasn’t even ready to hold his attention much less stand up to him.

So, Alina is spinning into her and Kazelia is suddenly flustered. “A-Alina! What? Uh, how are...things going?” She asks vaguely, not wanting to give away too much about the plan out loud. She’s still keeping an eye on Rita, but she’s not sure how to intervene across the dance floor. Maybe Alina will have an idea.

[Thanqol]

Adila!

What intoxicating innocence! What delightful naivety! You think Hornet has a lab, singular?

Hornet has secret labs stashed all over the tower, each one more cleverly hidden than the last. It’s only your keen dragon senses that allow you to find one after frantic searching up and down stairwells and through mirrored passageways.

The trick to opening the wall and entering, it turns out, is figuring which Goblin Gabby Mystery doesn’t belong on the shelf. You cheat and knock them all down, and it’s “Goblin Gabby and the Secret Entrance” that turns out to be the key.

It turns out to be a mechanical lab. Arcing lightning crackling between crystals is the only light source, sending flickering shadows across a dizzying array of wrenches, nuts, runes and wires. Masks line the walls, staring down sightlessly, and it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust.

And in that moment, you already have a spear’s tip pressing into your throat.

“Designated: intruder. This is a restricted area. According to my Watch Emulation Protocols, you are now under arrest. You have the right to remain silent.”

Your eyes focus on those Rider eyes, flecked with stars. But those stars are hard, merely flecks of diamond. And the face they are set in is familiar.

It’s Kazelia.

+Princess Kazelia?+ thought Adila nervously, looking down at the spear. +What are you doing? You're not still mad about losing are you?+ She was trying and failing to process everything around her. Had Kazelia been enchanted by Oberon? If so why was she being arrested? Had she used Princess Alina's eye makeup? She tried to focus on things that weren't the spear - Kazelia had hit her a whole bunch with that spear during their duel and she knew enough to know that pushing her way past it wasn't a great idea.

[PhoeKun]

Twirl, twirl, twirl! Spin, spin, spin! Fwumph!

Of course, she'd made it look amazing. Her dress is a Cascade original: of course the skirt can flutter and rise without embarrassing her, of course it looks graceful and eye catching. Her feet have known a thousand thousand dances and royal ballets, so of course those too raise to points and pivot around each other with absolute poise instead of frantically bobbling to keep her weight under her. Almost every eye in the room is drawn straight to her, little flower blossoming on the wind, she.

But that's not the same thing as having any control over her momentum or direction. Alina's curse has always been that everything, absolutely everything, looks intentional. So naturally there are quiet sighs and louder giggles and a general shaking of heads when her face meets cool, pleasant, and above all mysterious softness with that sound of fluttering fabric and soft bodies colliding that mixes with the platters on the buffet table shifting just ever so slightly. What else could she have meant to do? Where else could she have been trying to end up? Oh, Alina. It's like she kept herself that short on purpose.

Nobody's fooled by her squeak of fright or the blush on her face. Nobody's ever fooled by that schemestress anymore. Come on, girl. You have a girlfriend now: you're supposed to stop things like that.

"Sorry sorry sorry sorry!" she squeaks over and over again while she waits for the room to stop spinning.

Alina leans on the buffet table trying to catch her breath. It's a disappointing spread, she can't help thinking despite the fact that there's three of everything swirling around. She can't spot any of her favorites, even the ones from Jedad. Then it occurs to her that hey, maybe she has other things she needs to think about. She shifts her gaze up to the ceiling and slumps her shoulders.

"Lousy," she admits, "I'm stuck in some stupid game between Esmeralda and Kyouko and now I either hand you over to Princess Blackscarf and get her help or she'll throw me on an island somewhere, which..."

Her gaze slowly shifts down, and what she sees freezes the blood in her veins.

[Anarion]

“I promised the queen of the Konkon I’d win it for them.” Kazelia isn’t really paying attention to that and Alina isn’t listening. They’re both looking at Rita.

“He’s using magic to hypnotize the people he dances with.” Kazelia gives Alina a tug. She’s not nearly so graceful as Alina, but the motive is clear. We’re going to dance straight into him and pull Rita out of there.

[Raz_Fox]

Adila!

The really weird thing is that it’s not Kazelia’s spear. Her spear, as you well know, has a flame motif! Whereas this spear resembles nothing more than the hand of a very big clock. It’s all baroque flourishes and gold and a razor-sharp tip.

Also, Kazelia does not usually tick quietly to herself. As far as you know. Maybe it’s a new habit she picked up.

“Please remove all pieces of armor and weaponry, concealed or otherwise. I have signaled for the appropriate authorities; please sit warmly and wait until their arrival.”

Kazelia retracts the spear and crosses her arms in the first real Kazelian thing she’s done since poking you. “So what are you here for, anyway? All projects on this floor are Classified Level Indigo Bean.”

***

Kazelia!

Before you can get more than halfway there, another couple smoothly glides in and separates the two of you. You glance over right into the sparkling, delighted eyes of Kyouko.

“I’ve rescued you,” she barks with glee. “Alina’s secretly working for Esmeralda Blackscarf! Just don’t dance with her, okay? She’s trying to kidnap you, I’m sure of it!”

***

Alina!

Before you can get more than halfway there, another couple smoothly glides in and separates the two of you. You look up into the smug starry eyes of Prince Cassian.

“So, I’ve been thinking about your apology speech,” he says, squishing you to his bosom. “I think you should wait to tear up until you admit that all of your horrible lies were motivated by jealousy over how much better Father is at running your kingdom. Then, boom, waterworks. It’s the perfect visual.”

[PhoeKun]

"Mmm, it is a rather lovely image, isn't it? The tragic former princess sobbing under the moonlight, confessing her crimes and baring her soul in front of all her friends and former subjects. Could this be her true heart exposed at last? The drama! The suspense! The sorrow and the relief washing over my contrite little face so perfectly."

Alina smiles serenely up at Cassian and even manages a cordial giggle. Inside her chest, her heart is pounding with frantic terror she can only hope he can't feel. She makes a point of staring with her shining emerald eyes right into his swirling starry ones, bold as she dares, except when the steps of the dance carry them to a turn, where she steals glances across the increasing distance at Rita. Step, step, step! She does what she can to subtly guide their path toward this other more important one. But she does not dare use her ribbons or her lights. She doesn't dare risk handing the Riders more ammunition against her. So she dances on.

"I have a thought, though. Just a few quick edits to make the scene perfect. How about, instead of that, I save my tears until after I finish thanking your father for the many lessons he's taught my family that we'll surely never forget. And that's when we call my mother to the stage and introduce her back to her proper place upon the throne of Illumina! You will, of course, be invited to maintain the gardens."

[Anarion]

"Kyouko! Perfect! I've got just the thing! Esmeralda is trying to get Alina to help her capture me, but if we can extract her kitty girlfriend there from my father for the two of us, then Alina is sure to come along as well and we'll win the competition! Then perhaps you can assist with a little foray into Castle Illumina that we're planning." Kazelia gives Kyouko her best impish grin. "You'll have the pick of the Illuminans to carry off while you're there, of course."

Kazelia's already guiding their dance towards her father, ready to swoop in along with what she's sure is Kyouko's expert kidnapping hand and pull Rita out of Oberon's clutches.

[Thanqol]

Adila!

The really weird thing is that it’s not Kazelia’s spear. Her spear, as you well know, has a flame motif! Whereas this spear resembles nothing more than the hand of a very big clock. It’s all baroque flourishes and gold and a razor-sharp tip.

Also, Kazelia does not usually tick quietly to herself. As far as you know. Maybe it’s a new habit she picked up.

“Please remove all pieces of armor and weaponry, concealed or otherwise. I have signaled for the appropriate authorities; please sit warmly and wait until their arrival.”

Kazelia retracts the spear and crosses her arms in the first real Kazelian thing she’s done since poking you. “So what are you here for, anyway? All projects on this floor are Classified Level Indigo Bean.”

Princess Adila's mind does not go to 'robots'. She knows what robots are, you see: they are ten meter tall brass scorpions, or swarms of scuttling spiderbots with laser eyes, or that one animate hydra skeleton made out of liquid silver, or any other type of terrifying mechanical horror. Robots don't look like people, and they don't talk like people. She is not assisted by the fact that robots post-date the writing of the Operations Manual, or the fact that she has suppressed the possibility that Princess Hornet could make people-shaped robots from her mind lest she never sleep again.

So she registers the weird behaviour but, not knowing how to deal with it, is more inclined to chalk it up to miscommunication, or Spooky Kazelia Magic, or maybe some weird Hobling Keep mind control spell than entertain the idea that she's speaking to a machine. +I am unarmed and unarmoured - you know they checked us at the gate, Kazelia? And I'm here to check on Princess Hornet, I saw her dress and I was worried... uh, what's going on with you? Why are you here?+

[Raz_Fox]

Alina!

“That would be quite difficult,” Cassian sighs melodramatically. “Because the only place your mother belongs is hanging on a pole up in the gardens.”

The gardens.

The gardens that he.

“She is much better suited to scaring off crows,” he says, and his hands tighten on your hands.

“Besides. I think Freesia and Jessamine will be very... disappointed. Yes. Disappointed. If you don’t start apologizing for all those horrid things you’ve said.”

***

Kazelia!

The skill with which Kyouko is able to make the switch is frightening. The two of you spin and twirl past Oberon, and quite suddenly you’re holding Rita’s hand and pulling her stumbling along as Kyouko clamps one hand over Rita’s mouth out of reflex.

You manage to get fifteen steps away before Oberon even realizes he’s now dancing with a straw puppet shaped like Rita.

“Now that we have Rita,” Kyouko says, as Rita blearily blinks and goes murrrrr? adorably, “Where shall we lure Alina? Let’s dangle her off the third floor balcony!”

Kyouko no don’t— welp, you’re being dragged enthusiastically along, off the dance floor and up into the stairways. Kyouko whyyyy.

***

Adila!

KazeliaBot tilts her head quizzically. “I am here because I am undergoing evaluation of my Defense of Restricted Areas Protocols. I am not yet complete. Once I am complete, I will bring law and order to the lawless Bazaar once and for all.”

Lawless? Excuse you? The Bazaar is full of law and order.

“And then,” she adds, softly, “I will bring law and order to all of Hyperborea.” Dun dun dun! Seriously, that was the most ominous way to say that. Like cartoonishly ominous.

***

Hornet!

You manage to catch the Family Detection Buddy before he falls right through the grate! Phew! That was close. You tuck it close to your body and then cannonball down into the subdungeon basement.

This is really only supposed to be for maintenance! But you know every inch of your favorite tower, and you know that this is one of the most important rooms in the whole thing! This is the lynchpin that keeps the tower anchored in the rest of the Keep, right here: four sturdy bronze pillars.

You fall right into the arms of the family member you were looking for!

“Hello,” you say, and the Family Detection Buddy chirps happily huddled up to you. “Adila’s looking for you! Want to come with me?”

“Is she following you?”

“I don’t think so,” you say. It would be very difficult for Adila to wiggle through all those pipes. And she’d probably have trouble finding her way down! You should take her on a tour of your favorite tower later. She would like that.

“Good.”

And that’s when she brings the edge of her hand down on your forehead and everything goes—

[PhoeKun]

Alina's smile is frozen on her face. Step, two, three and step, two, three, and hold, two, three! Don't miss a beat now, or it'll be a disaster! Who wants to be known as the only princess in the whole ball who couldn't manage to keep up in a dance with Prince Cassian? She doesn't make a sound. Her steps quicken, and after a moment he's the one who needs to make sure he's not spoiling the lines of the dance. His hands squeeze hers. Hers squeeze daintily back. Her crystal eyes flash fiercely, but just for an instant. Blink or maybe turn your head to make sure your feet are still under you, and you'll miss it.

So. That smile. Isn't she just the prettiest?

"Kazelia likes you a lot," she says in a voice that only trembles a tiny little bit, "Loves you, even. So I have tried. Quite hard, in fact! To be nice to you."

Her grip tightens on his. More. More. More. She overpowers him. Squeezes to the point of making icky popping noises happen. Her arms glow with frankly dangerous looking red light, and now the sparkle in her eyes is unmistakable.

"But talk about my mother like that ever again," the smile falls completely off of her face, "And it will be the very last thing you ever do."

The dance, as dances so often do, turns violent. There's dragonfire roaring on Alina's chest, and when she twirls it's not just about flash and stealing all the glances in the room this time. Faster they go, and faster still. They... are still dancing, aren't they? Cassian's feet leave the ground. Dancing, um, roughly then. She lets go with one hand and then, with a final, floor cracking turn, rolls him over her hip and across the room where he collides back-first with a particularly expensive looking Hobling mural.

The reaction is instant. Bright, silky pink ribbons spring out of nowhere and start wrapping themselves around Alina. They wrap themselves in tight spirals around her arms and pull them slowly together behind her back. More spring up and lash her arms together all the way from wrist to elbow, forcing her spine straight and pushing her chest out into the empty space in front of her. She stands there as defiant as ever, but she doesn't even get a moment to cut any sort of figure, imposing or otherwise, before more ribbons snake themselves around her legs and bring her to her knees. They slip up her skirt and around her thighs and wiggle tickling as they go to find a place to tie themselves in pretty unseen bows by her hips. More pull her skirt tight, bend her legs and knock her straight off her feet with an undignified squeak. Up, they pull her legs, and up, trussing her feet to her wrists while yet more ribbons, these a sparkling sapphire blue, start helixing their way past her waist and toward her chest.

"Don't touch them, do you hear me? Don't you TOUCH my family!" Somehow her tone is so icy sharp that it cuts even despite her somewhat indecent position from the floor.

The whole room must be staring at her by now. Ribbons squeeze her pretty little chest tighter than any corset. Past her shoulders, delicately round her throat (let her breathe now, the poor dear!), and split her lips with a nice taught band that's immediately covered over with several more layers until she can't so much as think about moving her jaw to issue any more threats or warnings or whatever this is that's happening, and finally she settles there, trussed up like a winter present, folded on top of herself like a bow strung up for a hunt. Somehow, every inch of ribbon has missed every strand of her hair, which flows down her back in the satiny, loose cascading braid as perfectly as it has since she came in here. This does nothing to hide the flush of color creeping across her face.

Not that you can see too much of that. But the ears! If you look at her ears, they've definitely gone an adorable shade of pink. Oh, Alina. Didn't you used to me so nice at these balls?