May Day Ball 2009 — Rooftop Garden
Just upstairs from the ballroom: fresh air and a respite from dancing and music.
Date: May 1, 2009
Categories: Muse Academy, RRRs, RPWs, and RPGs, The Musiverse
Thursday, 16 May 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
Just upstairs from the ballroom: fresh air and a respite from dancing and music.
Date: May 1, 2009
Categories: Muse Academy, RRRs, RPWs, and RPGs, The Musiverse
YAY! First post!
….Sorry…is that kind of a post still acceptable on MuseBlog? Honestly, I don’t know. This whole place is so different.
It never has been acceptable, and never will. Being a member of the PoPoPo, I dust off my badge and fine you six kilos of virtual choklit.
Naw, but it looks ok when your the SECOND post!
Incorrect. *fines seven kilos of virtual choklit*
Can I join the PoPoPo? P*ease?!?!
I walk up the stairs, my pink dress swishing around my ankles, and make my way to the rooftop garden. It’s even more beautiful than I had anticipated.
The circular garden is rimmed by six fountains, which spray a light, refreshing mist on anyone coming too near. Each is lit from the inside in a different color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple making up a color wheel. Muse Academy’s biggest fan of rainbows approves.
Several benches are placed haphazardly around the circle, and beautiful flowers are sprouting from random patches of dirt. But there must have been more design going on than it seems, for the whole thing is aesthetically pleasing.
Then I see the best thing of all. Between the yellow and green fountains are two hedges, placed parallel so that they make a passageway between them. Stepping up onto a bench, I can see that it’s the entrance to a large hedge maze. Roses twine around the hedges, adding splashes of red, pink, white, yellow, orange, and lilac to the green. I can faintly see something glowing at the center of the maze.
I jump down from the bench, smooth down the skirt of my dress, and enter the maze.
((Maybe there can be a statue, fountain, or box of prizes in the center.))
Piggy- Oh man! Here ya go. I was saving that up, too…But the law is the law.
I walk upstairs with fireandhemlock, to introduce Piggy, Rainbowstar, Donaldo, and Tessa Rose.
(Thanks Enceladus)
I smile as Enceladus introduces me to some people up on the Rooftop Garden. “I believe I’ve met Piggy before. Hello, Piggy! Nice to meet you, Rainbowstar, Tessa Rose, and Donaldo!”, I say shyly. ” Thanks, Enceladus.” I say quietly, then grin. “Did you get to see Enceladus’ face when the Puffin Puff exploded in his face? It was pretty funny, wasn’t it?” I laugh.
I move upstairs, humming the tune that the musicians downstairs played wouderfully. I see an amazing garden, and lots of people. I introduce myself to everyone and sit down next to the plant with all the hummingbirds around it. What is that glowing coming from the hedge maze?
I walk up the stairs after my song is finished, holding the rouge train of my dress in my slender fingers, and greet everyone in the group in a happy, friendly manner. I shake fireandhemlock’s hand, as I notice that she is very new. “Hello,” I say. “I’m Agrrrfishi. Nice to meet you.”
I walk over to a bench, sit down, feed the hummingbird perched on my shoulder, and wish that someone would engage in conversation with me.
J-jetplane points out the glowing coming from the hedge maze to me. Who wants to come on an expedition through the maze with me? We will need hedge clippers, snacks, a BIG net, and lots of puffins.
I also run into the Hedge maze. I soon get lost, but I’m getting closer to the center. Suddenly I trip over something. Out of it pops tons of sprinkles and sparkles. Then it closes again. A booby trapped easter egg. How lcever. The GAPAs must have worked over-time to do that.
Coming up the stairs, I spot a great many quietly chatting Musers. Introductions are being made, and the atmosphere is pleasant and light. A perfect night for treachery and mischief… Had I had any planned. Bother.
I soon wander over to the hedge maze, singing faintly to myself. I finger some foliage and giggle – the leaves of this plant, if not the whole maze, are that of lemonbalm or something extremely similar. I pick a few leaves, crush them, and dab the oils on my skin, extremely pleased with the forethought of whoever put these lovely shrubberies here.
Feeling refreshed, I close my eyes and breathe deeply, then twirl around. Knowing my clumsiness, it probably would have been a good idea to open my eyes and look around before I spun – I manage to whack someone, though I’d thought nobody was around. I open my eyes to see…
/gradster(1)/ – Secretary of Bureaucracy of the ASAP
I stand up to walk about the garden, and notice the hedges between the yellow and green fountains. Walking over, I am about to sniff a bloom when someone’s arm whacks me in the face, knocking me down. I blink my eyes, dazed and confused, to see Gradster standing there with a sheepish grin.
“Sorry,” he says, and helps me up.
“No problem!” I replied. “I have to watch where I’m going!”
“Me too,” Gradster laughs.
I look around at the garden. “Nice job they’ve done, huh?” I say.
I wind up at the entrance I started at. Sigh. I see Donaldo (cool name!) getting some suplies. I ask him what he’s doing. “I’m making plans for an expedition into the maze. Wanna help?” “Sure!” I said. We nailed posts into the ground, and tied string around it. I fwe got lost, we could follow it back to the entrance. We also found mini-cameras, and attached the to some puffins who escaped baking.
Arriving up the stairs from the ballroom, I look around and see Enceladus and Donaldo doing…. something. I walk over. “Hey, guys. What’re you doing?”
“Building a maze,” Eneladus says. “It’s going to be big.”
“Oh….that looks fun. Maybe I’ll help you at some point.”
Armada, we are EXPLORING the maze, not builing it!
Agrrrfishi!
“Quite,” I say, lacking more eloquent words. “The lemonbalm really was a nice touch, and I like the maze idea, although it seems like nobody is claiming credit for it being here!”
“Perhaps it just appeared here,” she suggests. I nod. It’s the best explanation yet.
“I love your gown, by the way,” I interject. “Not many are bold enough to show up in red.”
/gradster(1)/ – Secretary of Bureaucracy of the ASAP
“Thank you!” I reply happily. “Your golden ensemble is also very nice. Very daring choice of colors, but they suit you quite well!”
“Thank you very much,” he replies, straightening his suitcoat jacket and grinning. “Gold is in season, you know.”
I nod my head, smiling. “Sure is. Want to go explore the maze? I need an adventure partner!”
I enter the maze, looking behind me to see if there is anyone following. I debate over left or right and decide on left, but I am confronted by a wall. I turn around and walk to the right…
“Sounds good,” I reply. “I was actually trying to keep androgynous until I’d found a gender-neutral formal wear,” I say, blushing, “But there don’t seem to be any, so I guess I have to stick with the suit.”
“So.” I gaze warily at the maze. “Care to venture in?” I sweep aside a dangling limb, switch o and gesticulate towards the center.
/gradster(1)/ – Secretary of Bureaucracy of the ASAP
14.1- “Oh. Yes. I’m an idiot…” I slap my forehead in mbarassment. “Anyway, can I come with you two?”
“Sure” I reply to Armada. We have maps of the maze, taken by puffins with mini-carmeras. Also, there is string tied to a post at the entrance, which you can use to find your way around. If one of us finds it, we share. Okay? Oh, and we have wung conpanions for company. This is Donaldo’s (8*8) and you can choose one of these three:
(|*|)
(^^)
(/\ /\)
and
(T^T)
Who do you want?
20- “Of course we’ll share. Do you know what the prize is, or is it just an undefinable goodie? This is my wung: (^÷^) She’s named Rosila. I found her hiding behind a geranium when I came up to this garden a few nights ago. She’s a Greater/Iridescent hybrid, I think. So, shall we start?”
“Yes!” I cried “We shall start our expedition. Psst. Armada. Put you wung in you name. Like this: Armada and Rosila (^÷^)”
I walk up the stairs to the Rooftop Garden in my kimono and admire the decor. The glowing fountains create a very festive mood and and I pull back one of my sleeves and reach out to touch the colored water.
((Did I start a fad for typographical wungs?))
I decide to explore the maze with the others, rather than by myself. When Donaldo suggests bringing along wung companions, I pull my wung whistle from a hidden pocket in my dress and blow it. It makes no sound to human ears, but wungs can hear it.
Soon, wungs come skittling from behind bushes and fountains, from under benches, or seemingly from other dimensions. “Well,” I say with a nervous laugh, “at least now there’s enough for everyone!”
Scanning the sea of wungs, I spot a small female Iridescent* – my own wung, Serendipity. She looks up at me with her ebony-black eyes and purrs affectionately, her white fur shimmering a spectacular rainbow in the light from the fountains. I scoop her up. “Last call for maze navigation!”
((*Iridescent Wung: a breed of wung discovered by me. Fur is primarily white, but shimmers different colors in the light. Eyes are black and liquid-looking, like a baby seal’s eyes.))
Whoops. Enceladus suggested bringing along wung companions.
My wung, Nimly, is a Starry Wung. In his physical form, he’s all furry, and starry and cute! For more on wungs, look here: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1395
Revive it, please!
Handily, the kokopelli statuette I got at the holiday party has a base complete with a hidden time turner, and I can explore the maze and dance at the same time. I pick up a wung with cast-looking metal feathers and run over to Rainbowstar and the others.
((I’ve created a situation where I am in two places at the same time, so I’ll refer to them as #1 and #2))
#1 I come up the stairs to the rooftop garden, just as “I” dissappear into the maze. I wander about, enjoying the fountains and sculptures.
#2 I work myself deeper into the maze, using the map I got. Nimly helps in many ways, one of them reporting what “I’m” doing.
Ah, a maze! I enjoy the suspense. May I come with thee, Enceladus? (In the maze.) My wung friend Drake has red scales, and he is a sort of spherical dragon. He has a short pointed tail, and small wings.. He tells me he migrated to New York from Wales. I met him while I was exploring in the swampy woods behind my house this morning. He has an amazing sense of direction. His species is a new one known as Dracoform Wungs.
#1 Sure, you can come with me Bluefire27! As long as we don’t run into #2, we’ll be fine! Nimly is from Chad, in Africa.
((Awesome!)) “Drake and Nimly seem to be getting along quite well together, don’t they?” I remark. Suddenly, I hear a rustle in the bushes. Another small Dracoform wung hops out. He greatly resembles Drake except that he is black, and his ears are not pointed, they are simply small holes in the sides of his head (like a lizard). The wungs play together for a while, and then we bid each other farewell and move on…
I arrive upstairs. The air is sweet and warm, and the sun has begun to set. I recall the series of events concering the Thing, which occured on this very rooftop a year ago. I wonder if it is still up there…ready to enduce May Day fever upon us all.
I just hope that Paul Baker doesn’t come up here.
What “Thing” ?
I join the expedition with my catlike Wung named Circe. She is forest green with the same color of eyes. Her tail is very long and prehensile.
“We have to be careful,” I say. “The Thing might have landed in there! Trust me, I know what It can do to people.”
((Is (,=,) an OK symbol for my wung?))
“Sure,” I reply happily, stepping through the area of branches that has been swept aside by Gradster. How chivalrous.
We make our way down the first path. The hedge maze is slightly forboing as the sky is quite dark by now, but we can still see something glowing through the cluster of branches.
“I wonder what’s in the middle,” I muse aloud as we walk down the row of high shrubbery.
“Me too,” he concurs. Suddenly, there is a rustling from the bushes. We turn around to see…
Cello-Playing Mathematician joins us, but warns us of a mysterious “Thing” that may have landed in the maze.
“I wonder what’s in the middle,” Agrrrfishi wonders as we stroll through the maze.
“Me too,” says someone.
Suddenly, we here a rustling in the hedges. Serendipity squeaks in alarm. We turn around and see …
I wander through the maze with my bird-like wung, which is blue and purple with a bit of pink and a pink glow, and rather fluffy. My dress is now a bit longer, and I am wondering who else is in the maze when I notice my wung has vanished. “Ferelda!” I call, then I see two people up ahead with a wung.
“It’s my wung,” I say Agrrfishi and Gradster. “I don’t know what she’s up to, unless she’s trying to convince us there’s a rampant hpb in the bushes.”
I head back through the maze to get her some truffles, and I meet Cello-Playing Matmetician, Enceladus, and Bluefire27. My wung has already flown off , so I sigh inwardly and ask if I can join the expedition.
((In response to all who may be confused about the Thing- read this thread, starting with comment #71: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1337
It gets a bit boring when the cleanup resulting from all the pies thrown at Paul starts, but you can get a good idea from it.))
A rustling from the bushes on my right spooks me at first, but it’s only a wung who flutters up two Insane MLDM’s shoulder. She asks if she can join the expidition, and we all heartily accept her. The more people we have against the possiblity of the Thing, the better. We have no idea what It can do…
Circe makes an assuring noise. The Thing is just a Thing. Nothing more, nothing less. The power of the human mind can certainly overcome it. We push onward under the orange sky of the setting sun.
((I’m writing eloquently because… It’s the May Day Ball!))
I keep forgetting to capitalize the “It”s!!! Dangit!!!
“Oh!” I exclaim. “What a lovely wung. I have one, too, but she’s at home. I’ll bring her to the next ball/dance.”
Gradster and I (is there anyone else with us?) turn left along another fork, while some of the others go right. We walk and walk until we reach what seems to be a dead end.
“Ah well,” Gradster says. “Let’s turn around…”
But before we can, a voice speaks from behind us. “Answer the riddle to enter through, lest loss of direction appear to you.” A large purple and black bird with elaborate plumage is perched on the top of the hedge, and it speaks in a flowing female voice.
“Sure, okay!” I exclaim. “What’s the riddle?”
((Cello-Playing Mathematician, Insane MLDM, and I are with you and Gradster.))
The bird begins to sing. But it doesn’t just chirp melodically, it sings as a human would, with lyrics. It sings:
In marble walls as white as milk,
Lined with skin as soft as silk,
Within a fountain crystal clear,
A golden apple does appear,
No doors are there to this stronghold,
Yet thieves break in to steal the gold.
The melody is pretty, but the sung riddle is confuzzling. We all pause to think. Even Serendipity appears to be musing over the riddle.
((I’m just wondering, do you have to answer the riddle to gain passage, or is the answer some kind of clue? (right now I’m in a different part of the maze)))
Sorry I had to leave! But look- I brought cookies for everyone in this expedition! We should hurry because I am afraid that we have a rival team composed of CPM, Insane MLDM, Rainbowstar, Gradster, and Agrrrfishi!
I propose a contest- the first team to find what is glowing in the Hedge Maze wins a series of innumerable and unnamed and unknown-as-of-yet prizes!
Now, let us be off.
My team is me, Enceladus and Bluefire. Is there anyone else? Come meet up!
Now, where were we? Oh yea…LOST. ET says to go left. So we shall. Trust me- ET has a great sense of direction…
#1 I wander about the garden, not paying attention to the maze, in case I get the insatiable desire to go in, where I may meet myself, and cause a catatrophy.
#2 I get closer to the center of the maze, following Nimly’s strange, often coded advice. For example, he sung”All you need is love, love. Love is all you need. Love is all you need. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! ” Where we came to an intersection one path was thicker than the other. I measured them, and one path was around196″, and the other 374″. I chose the 196″ path, as the Beatles wrote the song around 1960.
Drake seems to be acting strangely. I heard him muttering to himself about something like “justice, dragons, and the general welfare of wungs…”. I found it quite odd; I don’t know what to make of it. He usually doesn’t mutter to himself.. Oh dear…
Isn’t it spelled catastrophy instead of catatrophy?
I, too, am wandering around the garden, but I am trying to remaing out of sight behind a row of trees. Finally I grow tired and sit beneath a weeping willow, singing softly to myself my favourite song, “Close Every Door”, from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”, of which I had been in a production a few years ago.
“Close every door to me,
Hide all the world to me
Bar all the windows,
And shut out the light
Do what you want with me,
Hate me and laugh at me,
Darken my daytime,
And torture my night
If my life were important I
Would ask will I live or die,
But I know the answers lie
Far from this world
Close ev’ry door to me
Keep those I love from me,
Children of Israel,
Are never alone
For I know I shall find,
My own peace of mind
For I have been prom-ised
A land of my own.”
As sung by Joseph when he was being kept in prison. I’m not Jewish, but I find that song deeply satisfying, and it’s just the right pitch for my rich, husky, alto voice. ((as others call it)) As I finish the song, holding the last note as long as I can, I hear applause. I whirl around. There is only one person, but still-I hate being spied on, especially when I sing. If I’m up on a stage singing, that’s one thing, but if I’m singing for myself, that’s different. I glare at him. It’s Enceladus #1, I notice surprisedly. “What are you doing back here?”, I ask him angrily.
((What about this: The loser has to eat a puffin puff ))
I head off into the maze, clutching my wung (see my avatar). The gardens are so…serene and pretty. I glide through the maze, with my wung scutteling in front of me.
SFTDP:
My wungs is the skinny one on the right.
I enter the garden, taking a deep breath of the clear, May night air. I climb up the familiar oak tree, and look out. There was a hedge maze, and l climbed on the bough that was leaning over a part of it. There were two parties: one of two and one of six. The one of two was almost right under me, so I committed the maze to memory, and swung down, Maladori clinging to my shoulder. “Boo!” I shouted. The pair stopped in surprise and one emitted a small scream.
I drag Silver Lining into (or is that onto?) the Rooftop Garden. I plop down on a pretty stone bench and pull out my guitar. “Does anyone mind if I play my guitar?” I call to the rest of the group in the garden. Silver Lining floats over to the edge of the garden and stares out across the school campus.
“I don’t mind,” I say to Peace*. “Of course you don’t,” she replies. “And stop moping. Nobody cares about your age.”
I gaze around the garden. It really is beautiful, as the rest of them said it would be. I look at the entrance of the maze and step inside.
I dabble with the riddle for a while, singing to myself, repeating lines, and looking at the first letter of all the lines. None of it seems to help, until, unbidden, a memory of what I ate for breakfast springs to life inside my mind. “Could it be?” I mutter.
“An egg has marble walls as white as milk,
Is lined with skin as soft as silk,
Lies within a fountain crystal clear,
With a golden apple that does appear,
And egg has no doors to its ‘stronghold’,
Yet thieves break in to steal the gold.”
I grin. “Just like I did, this morning. Chopped some bacon up and made myself a sandwich, too. Mighty tasty. Anyway, that’s my answer.”
I look around to see what the bird’s reaction is, but it seems to have vanished in a cloud of smoke – given the cloud of smoke that just appeared right where it was not a second before. A single feather twirls down gently, and when it lands, I pluck it out from the ground.
I look it over for a few seconds. “Hmm…” I stand up and stick the feather in Agrrrfishi’s hair, where it matches [somewhat] with her dress. “Let’s get moving,” I propose. “Judging from CPM’s latest post, we don’t have that much daylight left.” I begin to walk off where we’d come from, until Insane MLDM catches my shoulder.
“We’re headed this way,” ze says. “Remember what the bird said to start?” Recognition slowly dawns on me as I recall that it had told us we could go on if we answered the riddle. I turn around to find a perfectly door-shaped hole in the hedge. A small breeze wafts from the dark area that seems to lead to a part of the maze that has hedges growing on top of it as well as on the sides.
“Right then. Shall we?” I walk through first to find…
/gradster(1)/ – Secretary of Bureaucracy of the ASAP
“Straighten up,” I said. “You’re almost there. Go left, right, right, north, west, right, left, and you’re there. Now, shoo!” I swung back on the tree branch, and scampered down. I ran down the the ballroom, and Maladori scampered back into the blue rose in my hair. She’s a rather small wung.
Gradster figures out the riddle, and the bird vanishes in a cloud of smoke. We find a door-shaped hole in the hedge, and enter.
What we find could best be described as a rainforest. There are hedges above us as well as on either side of us, so it’s darker and we’re completely enclosed by plant life . There are more flowers in this part of the maze, twining around the hedges in bright splashes of color.
I spot a particularly pretty rose, pink with a tinge of gold in its heart. ((There actually are roses like that.)) I reach out to pick it, but can’t bring myself to kill such a perfect thing.
Several of our wungs are munching on the flowers and leaves. Serendipity finds a yellow dandelion and chews on it. As they graze, I realize something. “How will we know what time of day it is?” I ask. “It’s dark in here, and we can’t see the sky.”
#2 Nimly directs me in his odd, rambling way, until, suddenly, I realize I am near the center. I can see the glow through the hedge wall. I start ripping off branches, until I make a hole large enough for me to crawl through. I’ve reached the prize! I think. Then, I notice something very, very, very wrong about the prize…
((Argh, the suspense is killing me.))
Suddenly, I realize why Drake is acting strange. The prize, besides being wrong in whatever way Enceladus says, is also giving off a milky smoke and I start feeling lightheaded and dizzy. My vision blurs and darkens as I fall, spinning, to the ground…
There’s a crunching and rustling noise, louder and farther away than the sound of our wungs grazing. It sounds as if someone is ripping the hedges apart. Maybe the other team, cheating. Are we close to the center?
We all look at each other in concern. Is the maze being destroyed? But it’s hard to be worried in this peaceful little passageway, where soft green hedges enclose us and beautiful flowers peek between the leaves.
I notice a greenish-white bud on the wall, ready to unfurl. In fact, as we watch, the petals start to move in a slow outward spiral. We stand for almost a minute watching it, until we’re looking at a big white blossom, shaped like a morning glory and six inches in diameter.
“A moonflower,” I whisper. It’s beautiful. But it’s no ordinary moonflower. As it finishes opening up, from the center delicately slips …
((Oh, no. Don’t tell me the Thing showed up again.
Where is Paul, anyway?))
I walk back downstairs, wanting to hear the musicians again.
There’s a hissing noise, like gas sprayed from a nozzle. Serendipity whimpers. Has the other group run into trouble? How could we help them? We don’t even know where in the maze we are. Although it must be evening, because the moonflower is opening.
Oh yes, the moonflower. As it straightens out into a fully open flower, from the center delicately slips a small gold object. The taffeta skirt of my pink dress rustles as I lunge forward to catch it.
It’s a little golden egg, no bigger than a hummingbird egg. Is there something inside it? I turn it slowly, looking for a button or hinge, but it’s simply smooth gold.
The tiny egg slips from my fingers. It seems to fall in slow motion, and when it hits the ground it shatters. Out comes …
The prize is quivering, like it’s alive. Behind me, a bird suddenly flys up into the air, gold colored. A wung whimpers in the background. The prize comntiues it’s quivering. I look around to find the hole where I had gotten in, but I could not find it. I was trapped in the center with The Prize. I yelled into the darkeness. Would anybody hear me?
I awake to find that I have recently fainted, and I am now trapped in the center of the maze with Enceladus, Nimly, and Drake. The milky smoke has stopped issuing from the prize. It was mind-messing smoke, which messes with your mind (obviously). That is why Drake was acting strange. I happen to have an extremely severe aversion to it, which caused me to get weaker as I neared it and then faint. Strangely, Enceladus and Nimly have suffered no ill effects. Maybe they’re immune.
I heard a scream as I went up to the roof with Ayu. Ayu seemed anxious, and I saw why. There was a hedge maze.
Ugh, I wasn’t good with mazes. I searched between the folds of my chiton for something that may come in helpful, and finally found it.
Ha. A ball of yarn. Now I might just like to find some more people… going alone is never a good idea.
A tiny golden bird springs from the shattered egg. We hear a yell.
The bird takes to the air, a shining speck in the dark hedge passageway. It flies along, as though leading us somewhere. We follow it.
((Perhaps the hedge maze has some kind of curse that traps anyone who damages it, and Enceladus was trapped in the center for ripping the hedges to get there. Or maybe the hedges simply regenerate when damaged, so the hole closed up.
Also, maybe the bird could lead us to the center to rescue the other team.))
((I’m not with anybody else))
The hedge walls began to close in on me, creating a prison, where I was trapped with the violently shaking Prize. I’d suffocate if I didn’t get out of here.
I thought you were with me?!
I walk into the maze, feeling somehow sad, since Nelby has been enjoying the ball too much to follow me. I step silently, and nobody notices that I gradually disappear into the maze. Suddenly, there is a rustle, and I turn. Crawling out from under the hedge is Nelby. Apparently, he has stopped dancing with that female wung he had taken a liking to, and came to join me in the maze. Really, it’s wonderful to have a wung as your May Day Ball escort.
((Sorry, I’ve been at an orchestra concert all day! ))
The bird flew fast and far ahead of us, glimmering in the darkening twilight and illuminating the path with a golden glimmer. I have to admit, I am a tad frightened of what lies ahead in the maze. I stick extremely close to Gradster and Rainbowstar as we make our way through the maze, towards what appears to be some loud commotion.
The bird leads us to what appears to be a dead end – a solid wall of hedge (with flowers twined around it, of course) blocking the path. What’s the point of that? Was someone trying to trick us or lead us astray?
The bird hovers around us. Serendipity swipes at it with one of her short appendages. What are we meant to do?
The hedges close around me, ecasing me and strangling me, in a green coffin, with the prize. I try to break free, but I can’t. Then, I see someone outside. “HELP!” I yell. Nimly bites his way through the foliage to find Rainbowstar and Serendipity
((21.1- Possibly. Not yet, though.
46- Aha! Fellow old-thread-reader!
The Thing (I forget which post# I’m answering exactly) is a…Thing that was making Paul Baker behave somewhat strangely at last year’s MDB. Eventually Paul got over it, and the Thing is still up here somewhere, on a pedestal.))
Rosila and I stop to admire the flowers in the maze, and when we look up again Enceladus and Donaldo have disappeared. I am just about to set off looking for them when I hear Enceladus scream.
“Enceladus!” I set of running through the maze, my long dress seriously impeding my progress, Rosila bouncing alongside me. “Cake it,” I mutter as I trip over my dress’s hem and go sprawling into a patch of lemon balm. Enceladus’s shouts are growing fainter…
“Guess there’s no one else,” I said to Ayu. He nodded faintly, still a glowing blue. He’s always like that, floating about glowing blue. He’s not a normal wung from where I lived. Ah well…
I began tying the ball of yarn to a twig.
Gradster, Agrrrfishi, Insane MLDM, Cello-Playing Mathematician, and I stare blankly at the wall of hedge. Why had the bird led us to a dead end?
The silence is broken by a rustling and crunching, as though the hedges are moving. Someone is screaming in terror. The passageway remains still and peaceful, but someone is in terrible danger. What can we do?
Suddenly, all our wungs go crazy. Serendipity squeals and leaps from my shoulder, launching herself at the hedge. She starts chewing the leaves at a frantic pace, as though trying to bite a hole through the hedge. The other wungs follow her, eating their way through the bush at a fantastic rate. The more the person screams, the faster they chomp.
In less than thirty seconds, they’ve done it. There’s more rustling, the screaming stops, and gaping hole in the hedge reveals a purple creature with blue stars and a mouthful of foliage. Enceladus’s wung, Nimly. Looking past the Starry Wung, I spot Enceladus getting up from the ground. He looks shaken, but not injured. Next to him is a glowing …
Thing.
The Thing. Our arch nemesis has returned. I feel Its influence begin to work its way into my skull. I long to touch It. I long to sit forever in Its glory. I must launch It again into the starry sky, like It was a year ago, to spread Its influence everywhere… Yes, yes. What It does is good, and all that is good comes from the Thing. I will help It and It will forever reign in the heavens…
Circe scratches my face with her sharpened claws. My hand whips up to my face in pain, but now I am freed from the Thing’s spell. I watch, unable to do anything, as the others face their own inner struggle with It. I’m afraid that if I touch It I might do something that I would regret.
I feel myself drawn toward the glowing Thing. It’s not really a definite object, just a Thing.
But that doesn’t matter. It’s beautiful. The glow It gives off fills me with a strange kind of joy. I step toward It. Nothing matters but being closer to this wonderful, perfect Thing. Now I’m standing right by It, drinking in Its euphoric glow. I extend a trembling hand to touch It.
Something small but powerful rams into my foot, causing me to stumble backward into a hedge. Luckily, the multi-layered taffeta skirt of my dress saves me from injury.
What happened? The glowing Thing is still there, but the wonderful feeling is gone. I’m thinking more clearly now. I see Serendipiity skittling away from the Thing. She must have tripped me. Why would she do that?
Then I realize why. Agrrrfishi, Gradster, and Insane MLDM are slowly stepping closer to the Thing, glazed expressions on their faces. L:ike zombies. Cello-Playing Mathematician alone seems unaffected, wincing from a scratch on her face.
I walk up the stairs, trying not to trip over my long blue dress. It is a perfect spring night, and a light breeze ruffles my hair. I look around. Lots of people up here, I think to myself. Suddenly, I hear a scream, and it’s coming from the hedge maze!
Stay here, or go find out what’s going on? I wonder.
Picking up the hem of my dress, I run (kind of) over to the entrance to the hedge maze…
((So the Thing is the Prize? Creepy!!))
I stare in horror and wonder at the mysterious glowing Thing on the ground by Enceladus. It has a strangely beautiful glow, and it calls to me with an entrancing voice.
Come closer, Agrrrfishi, into the light, and I will show you the wonderful prize you seek.
I walk forward without question, in response to the irrevocable call of the Thing. Faintly, distantly, I can hear the calls of the others beyond me, but the power and beauty of the Thing blocks out all around me and calms me, making me forget all around me in a blur of color centered around It. I draw closer and closer, reaching out a hand as though to touch it. With a spur of euphoria, I reach out my index finger and slowly touch the surface of the pulsing, wonderous Thing.
Suddenly, the air is filled with a high pitched squealing. The light from the thing starts pulsing faster and faster, and the light grows larger. The spell is breaking. Someone grabs my arm and pulls me away, but before we can run the pulse from the Thing blasts through the hedge maze, knocking us all off of our feet. I slam into the hedge, hitting my head on a trellis and falling down momentarily.
I arrive at the center of the maze in time to see [everyone who’s there] staring at a glowing….thing on a pedestal as if they are hypnotized. Aggie, her eyes blank, reaches out a finger and slowly touches the Thing.
I shout “No!” at her, but she doesn’t appear to notice. There is nothing I can do but watch helplessly. It’s all I can do to resist the spell myself, and I try to avoid looking at the gently pulsing Thing….
Suddenly, there is a high pitched squealing noise, and the hypnotized people break free of the spell and start to run. I grab Enceladus’s arm as he tries to get up, and half drag him out of the circle. We run into the maze’s walls occasionally, crushing the plants and breaking through, but the light from the Thing is following us, chasing us, and we’re not far enough away….
((This is weird. I’m going to go see what the Thing did last year… I don’t remember it being quite this destructive.))
The Thing was growing. It began to grow, and swallow the hedge maze. It was getting closer and closer to me, and it grew larger and larger. I stopped hypnotised, wanting it to envelope me for all eternety. I would be with the glorious Thing for all eternity. Bow down the the Thing! I shouted.
((Enceladus! You’re not with the Thing anymore!))
Yes I am!
((No you’re not! I dragged you away!))
We were running from it, and I saw it and was hypnotised again! ::swirly eyes::
We race through the hedge maze, trying to escape the spreading glow of the Thing. Serendipity clings to my shoulder, bouncing along as I run and squealing in terror. The other wungs have similar reactions. They all hate the Thing.
I run back, grab Enceladus again, and drag him away again. He digs his heels into the ground and pulls against me with all his strength.
I slap him in the face. Hey, if it worked for PB&J…
Armada slaps me. This only increases my love for the Thing, and my hate for the rest of the world
((Great.))
“Help! Someone! Enceladus’s been hypnotized by the Thing, and I’m not sure I can hold out myself much longer!”
w00t. Nice party. *eats cheese*
72- Nice party? Nice party? Go downstairs and say it’s a nice party, but don’t say it up here! The Thing will get you, I tell you! It’ll—
((Glug. Yay, now I’m hypnotized. Time to relax for a while.))
Armada, everyone else who had been hypnotised, and I start dancing around the Thing, worshipping it, and praising it’s glory. Wwe dance faster and faster, getting closer and closre to it, until it’s about to envelope us.
((Cake. This was something I didn’t count on. Someone come rescue us, for Koko’s sake!))
I keep running, only occasionally stumbling over my dress. It begins to get brighter, so I know I’m getting closer. Left, right, two more lefts…
there it is. It is glowing, and yes, strangely attractive, but I’m more scared than hypnotized. Maybe it was that puffin puff I ate earlier…
The Thing is surrounded by frightened MBers, so I grab the nearest one.
“Armada?”
She seems to snap out of her trance. “What?”
“Can you go get something really, really pointy?”
She nods and runs off. I see two more MBers about to be enveloped and I grab them just in time.
I can’t do this, I think. “Someone, help!”
I run downstairs, tripping on my dress and banging my head on the marble handrail.
((cont. downstairs, hopefully people won’t PoPoPo me))
I’m back, and I’ve got a fork!
I snap out of my trance lust in time to see the branches of the maze coming to a sudden rest, the leaves quite still and the people around the Thing watching it with trepidation. Suddenly, the blue glow of the thing dims in pulse, and the MBers around it seem to come out of their trances as the light dims out to reveal…
“The golden apple,” I whisper.
“Someone grab it!” cries Armada.
“Slowly, carefully, I reach up and grab the golden apple. On it is printed a single word: BITE. I pull it towards my mouth and take a careful chomp. From it falls a piece of paper, on which is written…
((‘For The Fairest’?))
((*cough* Never mind, someone else said that. Rainbowstar, perhaps? Okay, Rainbowstar.))
((Okay, never mind that never mind. Armada is always posting one before me! *fines self for multiple PoPo’s*))
((What? I’m confused now. What’s going on?))
I press myself against the hedge, looking for an exit and hoping the glow doesn’t spread farther. Cello-Playing Mathematician and Agrrrfishi do the same.
Enceladus and a few other MBers start dancing around the Thing, praising its glory. They dance faster and faster, getting closer and closer to It. When they’re no more than three feet away, Sunrunner Bramblewood bursts in.
She grabs Armada, jolting her out of her trance, and tells her to go downstairs and get something pointy. Armada runs off. I hope she can find her way out of the maze in time.
Sunrunner Bramblewood saves Gradster and Insane MLDM, but Enceladus is still there, dancing in the glow of the Thing. We can’t let him touch It.
I have no choice. I take a deep breath and walk briskly toward Enceladus, my long dress rustling. I’m glad I chose an ankle-length one, or I’d be stumbling every two seconds. Funny what crosses your mind when you’re in danger.
I step into the glow, and am overcome with a feeling of crazed joy. The Thing is back. I must worship It.
No! I have to save Enceladus!
The Thing makes me happy. Why shouldn’t I worship it? Enceladus is doing the right thing. Follow him.
No …
The Thing is winning. Against my will, I start to circle around It with Enceladus. My own mind dwindles to a whisper.
Help …
Something small and hard strikes my back. “Ow!” I shout. My thoughts clear. Someone threw a rock to snap me out of the trance. And I have to save Enceladus. Feeling the effects of the Thing start to seep into my brain once more, I shove Enceladus violently from behind, sending him sprawling to the ground.
HTML gnome, could you please fix the italics? They should stop after “Help…”
The Thing is already dead, just so’s you know…
Oh, wait, it is?! Heh heh… But I didn’t see anyone kill it in the other posts.
((SB, what’s the fork for?))
A sharp pain settles into my ankle. I scream for a second and then look down. “Mia!!!! [my wung]” I shout, scooping her up. “I thought I had lost you!” I stand on my tiptoes, peering over the edge of the hedge maze.
Pretty colours… I drift into the maze, following the beautiful glow.
But something feels incredibly wrong. Why are there people on the ground? Hey, look, it’s a pretty glowing thing. That’s cool. I like the pretty glowing thing. A lot. I kneel down beside it, basking in its glory.
Wait. It’s not just a thing. It’s the Thing. A wave of fear washes over me. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty–
Whoopsie. The boldface should end after “the” in “It’s the Thing.”
The twig jerks violently away form the string I tied to it. I back off in horror, and rush into the maze. Ayu has disappeared again… but no time for that.
I hear screams and chanting and worshipping, but I can’t quite figure out where it’s coming from. cake, ,I mutter as I crash into a dead end.
Then Ayu reappears.
((And I still have no idea what’s going on…. And I still have no idea why I’m holding this large and extremely pointy fork. *pokes somebody*))
Ayu floats toward a dark side of the hedge maze, and I saw that it was another dead end. Until—
CRASH!
I crash into a circle of people, surrounding a— no, The— Thing. Someone poked me with a fork.
“Ouch!” I say, surprised. “Armada, is that you?”
89- “CTN? What are you doing here? We found the Thing—remember the Thing?– and it hypnotized a bunch of people, including me, but now Aggie says it’s dead. I’m not sure, though….”
(SFTDP)
“Oh, and I’ve got a fork. Which I have no idea what to do with. Sunrunner Bramblewood sent me to get it and then disappeared.”
((I think it was intended to poke the hypnotized people))
“I don’t remember The Thing… ” I stutter. “I wasn’t here last year. The fork… umm.. you poke The Thing with it, maybe? I don’t know.”
I’m helpless, pressed against a hedge to avoid the Thing’s light. It must be doing something…
Oh, no.
“Is that even the real Thing???” I shout, asking no one in particular. “Last year there was a distraction, hiding the true Thing. What if it’s the same this year? The Thing could be tricking all of us!”
“I don’t have a clue,” I reply, confused. “It gave us the apple. Isn’t that a clue? (hint, hint)”
Oh gosh! It appears we have a party crashing on our hands! Who is controlling the Thing? I was not here last year, but I have heard about it. Paul is not even here yet it seems!
I have lost my group in this wretched maze. I am at a dead end. Who is screaming? The glowing from the center is getting louder and louder. Louder and louder? I’m losing my mind! I think. Or could it be… the Thing is making me lose my mind. ET is walking around in his strange way on the ground- Hop, 2-step, hop, hop,4-step. Almost a pattern…
Suddenly, I find myself doing the same thing. Hop. 2-step. Hop hop. 4-step. Triple hop. 6-step. Suddenly, the bush opens up, and I step right on through. The glowing has reached a climax. I am in the center of the maze!
The Thing- it is beautiful, but horrific! Some MBers are dancing, others are trying to break out!
Not knowing what else to do, I yell, “I BROUGHT SNICKERDOODLES!!!!!”
Everyone stops and stares at me as I hold the plate up.
What did I do?
Sorry to double post, but I have to make a correction. Where I say the MBers are dancing and stuff, I realize now that the Thing is dead.
Or is it? Last year, there was a fake Thing to distract us from the real Thing. I think the real Thing would not be in such an obvious place as the middle of the maze.
It is somewhere else! But where??
By the way, who wants snickerdoodles???
The Thing is dead. We did it. But some of us hold the opinion that it’s a fake, to distract us from the real Thing. I doubt it. Its hypnotism seemed pretty real.
With the danger gone, we rest in the middle of the maze, munching snickerdoodles and petting our wungs. Soon we’ll get out of the maze and return to the ballroom.
The dark sky suddenly lightens, illuminating the center of the maze. Serendipity’s fur flashes a spectacular rainbow. We all look up to see the source of the light.
Sorry! The fork (or fireplace poker, or whatever) was to stab the Thing. Which apparently is dead now. Sorry, didn’t mean to disappear.
Suddenly, a brilliant light shines down from the sky, and everyone stares at it.
“Um. That’s the Thing, isn’t it? How many Things are there?”
There can be only one.
That’s a movie reference, isn’t it?? *racks her brain*
The Highlander. The television series, at any rate, presumably the movies as well, though I’ve scrubbed those from my memory.
Also the Sparklypoo comic.
“Two there are, only two.”
-Yoda, Star Wars Episode 1: A Phantom Menace
((I know, I know, PoPoPo me all you want, but I had to.))
Just doesn’t have the same resonance, does it? *deep, stentorian voice* “There can be only…two? three? Wait….” and off the speaker goes into the Gorge of Eternal Peril.
Sorry for the idiotic plot twist – the drama can’t end just now, because that would be boring! I’ve got a plan, too.
I jump up suddenly, knocking over someone leaning on me, and dive away from the group. “It’s a trap!” I shout, echoing Admiral Ackbar. The strangest things go through my mind at these times (… I think, echoing Rainbowstar). “Quick, get up, get out!”
I make it not a few feet out of the inner circle, several of the more alert [or more adrenalin-filled] Musers right behind me, before a wall forces us all to stop. It simply appeared in the air, as if someone solidified what was already there… I skid, with not much tread on my dress shoes, and knock someone over a second time.
/gradster(1)/ – Secretary of Bureaucracy of the ASAP
Bam! /gradster(1)/ knocks me over. The ground collapses, pulling everyone into a deep, dark hole where we fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall [Snip…and so on and on for quite some time.] and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall until we reach…
…Pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty… I suddenly snap out of my trance. It’s dead. The Thing is dead.
I shake my head quickly. Mia peeks out from behind my pale yellow skirt. She hisses at the (apparently) dead Thing. “C’mon, Mi, let’s go back downstairs. Peace* will wanna hear about this!”
Ayu reappears, looking worriedly at the brilliant light. He didn’t say anything;he never said much. It seemed a good idea to run now, but there wasn’t anyplace to go.
Ayu mutters something and disappears again.
I sighed.
…until we reach the bottom of a dark pit, where the light doesn’t shine. My head hurts. We all lay in a jumbled mess on the floor of a small cavern.
“Weird,” I say. “It’s never done this before…”
“Gee,” Gradster says, “that was some fall. Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” shrugs Rainbowstar. “It looks like some sort of hidden cave.”
I open up the slip of paper that I got from the apple and read it…
“What does it say?” I politely ask, not wanting to intrude on Agrrrfishi’s right to role-play with her own ideas. “And also, I think…” I pinch a disembodied arm. “Is that you? I can’t really tell where I am, let alone other people.”
/gradster(1)/ – Secretary of Bureaucracy of the ASAP
“Ouch! Yep, that’s me!” I say. “And it says, um…” I squint in the dark light to read another poem:
Make your swift way through this cave
To find the prize that you so crave,
And if you find the exit out,
The prize lies iin the fountain spout…
Oh, dearie me. The Pedestal should have held it. It really should. It is a beautiful pedestal, in which a Thing may take delight and be content.
But so many things about the Thing are uncertain. It is speaking, and we must hear it. But we must not listen, for then we shall hear only what we wish to hear. The Maze is the manifestation of the Path. The Path to the Thing is tortuous, and they that seek it must cast about in all directions except the one they desire. Enjoy the Maze. Embrace the Maze. Enfold yourselves in its green and comfortable windings. Seek not the Thing, and you shall find it.
Yet I am worried. The Riddlebird has appeared, on the very anniversary of the Thing’s inception. In one way, it is another Maze. But not an alternate Path. That would be too obvious. No, there is significance in the Riddlebird, although none whatever in its riddles, if past experience is any guide.
I must seek guidance. I must enter the Maze, and dance again with the Thing. Wish me good fortune.
Ow, I think. I must have bumped my head. I look around and see Aggrifish and Gradster puzzling over a sheet of paper.
“Where are we? Has the maze ever done this before?”
Now I know why I don’t usually come to dances.
“Gaah, stupid maze.” *comes to another dead end* *angrily pulls out hedge clippers* *snipsnipsnip*
((107- Oh dearie me is right. IBCF, stop him!))
108- “Well, this doesn’t usually happen at normal dances…”
I look around. “The fountain spout? Does anyone see a fountain? As a matter of fact, does anyone see anything?”
“Not really,” I reply to Armada. I get up and dust myself off.
“So. We’ve got a riddle. We’ve got us. And we’ve got a cave… Sounds like a bad joke.” I chuckle. “Something like ‘A riddle, you, and a cave walk into a bar.'”
/gradster(1)/ – Secretary of Bureaucracy of the ASAP
“Nope, not a thing. Maybe we fell into the basement of the Academy?”
Shrugs all around. I shrug too and look around. Barely any light anywhere. There seemed to be several passages leading off of this cave, but nobody seemed too keen on exploring these. I sauntered (as best as one can saunter in a floor-length gown) over to one of the entrances and peered in. There appeared to be no light coming from within, and the other tunnels looked the same.
I walked back over to the main group. “Do you think we should split up? Send pairs down each of the tunnels and meet back here later? Or is that idea incredibly dumb and I’m just not realizing it?”
“I’m not sure,” I say, but I take a red glow stick from the front of my dress and crack it so that it illuminates the cavern with bright red lights. I look around. “Nope, no fountain.”
“Maybe it means the one upstairs, but..oh…” Rainbow says, realizing that upstairs is kind of, well…upstairs.
“Or maybe one down here?” suggests Gradster. I nod vigorously. “I agree! We should press on. I think that…”
I am cut off by a loud rumble from overhead. None of us wants to find out what it is.
“I agree,” Armada says hastily. “Let’s go.”
((Oops. Edit:))
“Yeah, let’s split up,” I say in agreement. “The fountain must be very close. Who wants to be in what group? I’ll lead one, and Sunrunner can lead one, if you like…”
“Split up? I…guess… What’re we going to do if one of us finds the fountain? How about we come back here after…. I don’t know, as close to twenty minutes as we can guess? I’ll go with Sunrunner, I guess.”
I go with Armada and Sunrunner. We shall escape with our lives… hopefully I said. Suddenly, out of the darkness, something with red eyes lept at me. “Whoops, wrong ball.” It said and It left without a trace.
116- I stare after the red-eyed thing into the darkness. “Um. That was strange….”
I look around nervously, trying to see if there are any more things like that around, and see a light way off in the distance. “Hey, guys! What’s that?”
((SFTDP, but Enceladus, I’ve been wanting to put a line like that into one of my stories for years! I love random stuff like that…))
((I mean for it to reappear at the Halloween ball…. ))
((118.1- Awesome. Can it time-travel?))
((The name is It. Can It time-travel? It can do everything. ))
I follow Agrrrfishi, wondering if Enceladus, Armada, Sunrunner Bramblewood, and I are the only ones down here. “Ulp.”
“What?”
“Two people doesn’t seem too safe.”
We soon reach a fork in the tunnel.
“Why don’t we stick to the leftmost option for now?” I suggest. “We’ll double back when we find whatever we need to. Or if we just run out of time.”
/gradster(1)/ – Secretary of Bureaucracy of the ASAP
117- A wung with glowing eyes leaps out of the darkness and joins the party.
((119.1- Why are we putting smileys in all our posts?
121- It’s not a wung. It’s an It.))
Well, it looked like a wung.
((123- It did? You could see It? What did It look like?))
*painstakingly clips way through thick hedge* *after what seems like eternity, finally makes it through foliage…to find brick wall blocking path*
“Dang, dang, dang. Mr. Robin, could you show me the way out of this place?”
Mr. Robin: “I have no freaking clue. Figure it out yourself.” *flies away* (Secret Garden reference, in case you didn’t know)
((125- Find PB&J, before something bad happens! I’d help, but I fell down a very deep hole! ))
Furry and puffy. I suppose a lot of animals look like that, but as I was in Muserland my mind immediately went to wungs.
The ground disappears under my feet. I let out a short, high-pitched yell and cling to the bush I’m leaning against. For a few seconds, I’m hanging over a deep hole. All the others are swallowed before the earth suddenly comes back like nothing ever happened. I take several breaths, then test the ground. It is sturdy, and just as I am fleeing the Thing’s domain to safer territory within the maze, I notice: The Thing. Or, better put, the absence of the Thing. The pedestal, and Its supposedly empty, hollow shell, are gone. What remains of their existance is a small depression in the ground, in which lies a piece of paper. It reads:
The fountain which you so desire
Is marked at the base with a carved lyre.
Touch only the fountain to which this poem leads
Or else you will not be able to proceed.
I’m not desiring a fountain. Maybe… this is the second half to the piece of paper found in the psuedo-Thing! I don’t know what the other paper said, but I have to do something. I prowl around the maze in search of my fountain.
((Yeah, my poetry stinks. Rhyming leads with proceed… bleah.))
“Maybe I can climb up through the hedge and get over the wall…”
*after several falls, scratches, and bruises* “Yes! Cool, I can see the whole maze…wait, who’s that down there? *sees Paul Baker slowly walking down path, mumbling inane things to himself*
“Is that PB&J? What’s he doing?” *carefully treads upon brick wall* *leans over hedge* “Hey, Mr. Baker! Are you feeling all right?”
I walk out of the maze, followed by Nelby. I am more peaceful, and somehow more anxious at the same time. I walk back down to the ballroom.
I go with Agrrfishi’s group. We walk through a normal passage, without the ceiling. The sky is now pitch-black, and bright stars sparkle like diamonds against it. Agrrrfishi’s glowstick casts a red light over the path in front of us.
We hear footsteps, and scramble to hide. We end up scrunched against a hedge, blocking half the pathway. Why couldn’t there be a helpful cave now?
A dark figure approaches, mumbling. Agrrrfishi untangles her arm from the hedge and raises the glowstick, illuminating the person. It’s Paul Baker.
I’ve never been happier to see a GAPA. “Can you help us out of here?” I plead.
I don’t know if he even hears me. “The Thing,” he mutters. “I must find It. Then … we will dance.”
Agrrfishi- I’m with you.
“The Thing is dead, Mr. Baker,” I say.
131- The GAPA didn’t seem to notice me. I continued walking along the wall with him, wondering what to do. Suddenly, a group of people appeared out of the darkness below. Peering over the hedge, I could make out Agrrrfishi’s face, lit by her glowstick. “Hi guys, up here!” I yell down to them. “It’s IBCF, I’m on a wall between the hedges!”
“A wall between the hedges?” I ask, intrigued. “How do you get up there? Can you see a way out?”
I start to get bored with sitting around, when i see a tiny little wung walk up to me. The poor little thing was shivering. “Hello there little guy,” I say, “What’s up?” (can I adopt a wung?!?!? What breeds are there? This is so exciting!)
((Can someone tell me what’s going on? What’s the Thing?))
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s the fountain?”
Armada and I cautiously venture closer to the light. As we approach it, it seems to be changing colors- first yellow, now blue, now and strange shade of green. After a minute or so of walking, we come to the entrance of another tunnel, and the light is so bright here it nearly blinds us. Taking a deep breath, we push further into the cave…
((We should all meet up somewhere – maybe at the fountain. Then we should get out soon.))
We walk down the passage, hoping to escape the maze soon. IBCF, walking on the wall, follows us.
“There’s a light over there,” he says, pointing. “Brighter than the pseudo-Thing light, and it’s changing color. Yellow, blue, green … but I can’t see what it is from here.”
Standing on my tiptoes, I can see a faint glow nearby. Yellow, blue, green. Yellow, blue, green. We walk in its direction at the next turn, and come to a tunnel.
The light gets brighter as we move through the tunnel. Soon we meet three other people, who the shining light shows to be Armada, Enceladus, and Sunrunner.
((Cello-Playing Mathematician, maybe you should also come to the tunnel. It’s confuzzling when we’re all split up.))
The light suddenlyflashes so brightly that we all close our eyes. Stumbling around, we all fall into a deep pit filled with…
I look around as I hear someone come into the fountain room. In the light from the pulsing fountain, I can see that Aggie, Gradster, Rainbowstar, IBCF, and Donaldo ((and CMP?)) have joined us.
“Hello, guys,” I say. “Think this is the fountain we’re looking for? It certainly looks impressive…”
Rainbowstar shrugs. “Let’s see.” She walks toward the fountain, and…..
((No idea. TBC, or someone else RP.))
((Sorry, didn’t see #139. So are we going with 139 or my post?))
((Let’s go with Armada’s post.))
The source of the light is revealed to be a lit fountain – like the ones in the garden, but bigger, brighter, and color-changing. Armada asks if it’s the fountain we’re looking for.
I shrug. it looks impressive, but it could be a fake, like the psuedo-Thing. I walk up to it, and notice a carved design at the base – a lyre.
Though the spout is lit, the water is clear and tranquil, raining softly down. I extend a cautious finger and touch the surface.
Everything swirls around me. I feel a sensation of falling, and then my vision goes black.
I watch, not sure what to do, as Rainbowstar walks up to the fountain, looks closely at a spot on the base, then reaches out a finger to touch it. I shut “Rainbowstar, no!” remembering what happened when Aggie touched the Thing, but it is too late. Rainbowstar turns into a whirlwind of spiraling color and then disappears as the rest of us stare in shock.
“Rainbowstar!” I cry, and go to follow her. IBCF holds me back. “Wait a minute, Armada. Don’t do that.”
“We have to follow her!” I cry. “We can’t just leave her wherever she’s gone!”
“Maybe, but we need to talk about it, not throw ourselves into who knows what just like that. Everyone, what do you think?” [[anyone who wants to be asking this]] asked as en turned to the rest of the group.
“Mmph …” I mumble. I’m lying on a soft, spongy surface, neither warm nor cold. I don’t open my eyes yet, disoriented from the strange swirl through time and space.
“You are safe,” a flowing female voice says. It sounds like … the riddle bird? “Your friends will be here shortly, and you can claim your prize.”
Slowly I open my eyes. I’m looking up at a ceiling of faintly colored swirls. The colors drift like clouds, mixing to form new shades.
I take a deep breath, and try to sit up. With some effort, I manage it. Everything seems faint and foggy, but I think I’m now sitting on the soft thing. I’m surrounded by swirling pastel colors like the ones above me, except for a dark blur a few feet away. I blink a few times, and my surroundings focus a bit. The shape is, in fact, the riddle bird.
“It was impossible to hide the prize within the fountain itself,” the bird explains. “We filled it with a magical liquid that would transport you to the true location of the prize.”
I yawn and stretch, then try to stand up. I promptly fall back, as though I don’t have the strength.
“Soon you will recover,” says the riddle bird. “Teleportation can be hard the first time.” Teleportation.
A swirl of color appears near us. “Oh,” says the bird. “Here come the others.”
The first fountain I happen upon is one of a toad and a child. I check the base–no lyre. I hurry onward.
A few minutes of fruitless searching later, I see a bright light at the end of a row of hedges with a cluster of people arond it. I hurry closer and realize that the light is eminating from a large fountain. It’s simple, with only one vertical spout. The people standing around it I recognize as everyone who fell in the pit.
“Hey!” I yell. Some turn to look, but I inturrupt anything they have to say. “I found a riddle, too!”
“The fountain which you so desire
Is marked at the base with a carved lyre.
Touch only the fountain to which this poem leads
Or else you will not be able to proceed.”
“Whoever wrote this was not very good at poetry,” I say matter-of-factly. Then, I notice the tiny carved lyre on the base of the fountain.
“Hey, look at that! A lyre!” Ignoring protests from the people around me, I step into the pool of water at the bottom, excitedly reaching for the spout, when suddenly, my mind blacks out. I’m falling…
I slowly wake up in a world of swirling colors. I groan, roll my head, and see Rainbowstar lying to my right.
“Hi, Kyra!” she says.
“Hi. Um, where are we?” I answer.
An unconscious girl falls from the colorful swirl, landing softly on the spongy surface to my left. It’s Kyra.
“She will wake soon,” the riddle bird tells me. Seconds later, Kyra’s eyes open. She groans and rolls her head in my direction.
“Hi, Kyra,” I say, happy someone I know is here.
“Hi,” she replies. “Um, where are we?”
As I contemplate how to answer this, the riddle bird says, “You could call this a storage space. We are waiting for your friends. The prize is nigh.”
While we wait, I decide I should ask the bird something else. “Do – do you have a name?”
The bird chirps in amusement. “My name is Lyra. The carved lyre indicated that I would be waiting for you.”
While in the maze, I had produced a lone pie from somewhere. I managed to fall on it when Ferelda tripped me in an attempt to break the psuedo-Thing trance. I now try to remove pie from my dress, and taste some. “Mm,” I say, still walking along,”peanut butter.” I vaguely wonder where the rest of my group has gone when Ferelda, presumably eating some pie I dropped, trips me up again and I crash into the fountain. I manage to touch the lyre and I fall…
I wake up and grope for my pie. Aaah!…there it is. “Want some pie?” I ask Rainbowstar and Kyra. As it has been sat on and dropped in the fountain, I’m not suprised when they look dubious, but my wung doesn’t mind eating it.
“So,” I say, “where are the others?”
Seeing the others disappear, I shoot a cautious glance at Armada before sticking my hand into the fountain.
Suddenly, I’m falling through blackness. It’s a lovely feeling- I’m weightless, and calm, and…
Thump!
All right, not weightless anymore. I open my eyes and groan. As I look around, I see Rainbowstar and Kyra, among others. They seem to be talking to a large bird that resembles a parrot. I slowly get up and walk over to them.
“Ah, good. You’re here,” says the bird. “Where are the others? Aren’t they coming?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. What happened? I though the fountain was supposed to have the prize in it?”
As the bird and Kyra fill me in, I hear several more thumps behind me.
The bird (Lyra) nodded. “Good. Everyone has now arrived. Follow me, please, and I will show you to the prize.”
I’m running through the maze outside, realizing that I’m incredibly late, when a hedge reaches out and pushes me. A wung comes around the corner and looks at me quizzically as I stumble. I say to her, “Come on, um, Maple, we’ve got to find Armada and Rainbowstar and all the others!” I start to run toward what I think is the middle of the maze. But then, suddenly…
… the ground opens up and I fall…
… into a hallway. “What’s this, Maple?” I ask, “I don’t think anyone’s been here before.” Maple shakes her head and I hear a voice in my mind. “The wungs have been here. This is another maze.” I shrug, turn around and walk down the hallway, hoping to find the others, toward a bend. Then I hear footsteps and someone comes running toward me…
“All right,” I say. “We really have to save them. I’m going in.” And despite some protests, I grab the hem of my dress with one hand, step into the fountain itself, and reach into the spout with my other hand, closing m eyes so I don’t have to see…
WHOOSH!
Instantly, I am sucked through time and reappear, falling through the sky in a swirl of red and gold dress, and then I collapse to the ground next to…
“Rainbowstar! Kyra!” I exclaim. “And a new person! Who’s this?”
Now Agrrrfishi, Sunrunner, Kyra, and someone I don’t know are in the room of swirling color with me. Lyra insists that everyone must be here for us to claim the prize.
We sit for a while, watching the colors swirl like clouds. Lyra suggests, “Try jumping. It’s fun.”
I stand up and leap as high as I can, but I don’t come back down. I remain suspended in the air. I realize that I can move around, and start drifting around the room. The others join me.
Floating on my back, I reach out and stir the swirls of color with my finger. This is fun!
“Awesome!” I say, leaping up into the air and floating there, suspended as though by invisible wires. I do a backflip in the air, feeling it twirl around me. I then reach out to touch the swirls of color in the air. It is then that I notice the ceiling.
“Hey, guys, look up! Oh my good wungs, are those what I think they are??”
The ceiling is sparkling, but not with swirling air. Jewels like I have never seen and trinket that sparkle in the light from the pretty air glimmer distantly above us. “Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, moonstones…is that an amethyst puffin I see?” I float up to it, reach out, and find that I can pull it easily from the roof of the cave. “How pretty!”
Reaching through the swirling, colorful mist, I touch the jeweled ceiling. A large, round moonstone comes away in my hand, attached to a fine silver chain with a clasp. A necklace. Still floating, I fasten it around my neck. It accentuates my dress well, shining white against soft pink.
It’s fun in this little place, but something tells me the prize will be better than anything here. When will the others show up?
“Wheee!” I say to myself as I leap towards the ceiling. “I’ve always wanted to fly,” I say to nobody in particular. Suddenly, a hole in the air appears a few feet away. I call out to the others and they float over to it. The colors churn now instead of swirl, and suddenly the hole expels a human (I think, or at least an animal of human-like shape), that falls to the spongy ground. As soon as they hit it, everyone else falls as well. We sit, rubbing various aching body parts, and wait for the mysterious new arrival to awaken.
I sigh, and look at IBCF and gradster ((they’re the only ones left, right?)). “Well, I guess we’ll have to go too, then…” I advance on the fountain, keeping a tight grip on my fork, and touch the lyre with one finger.
The world goes all swirly, and I have that unpleasant falling sensation that you get sometimes in dreams but pray never to experience in real life. Then I land on a spongy surface, bouncing slightly.
I look around. “Hey, everyone! I’m here!” Then I notice the mysterious person on the floor–or the surface, anyway. “Hey, who’s that?”
((Who is it? It’s not me, that would be no fun…))
I float up to the celing and find a ring. It’s my grandmother’s ring, which I lost about a year ago. It’s supposed to be topaz (which is both of our birthstones) on a gold band, but my grandmother said that when she was in high school she took it to a jeweler and found out that it was a fake gem on a brass band. I always treasured it, even though it was fake, because it was really old. I slip it onto my pinky, which is the only finger it ever fit on.
I turn in midair and see everyone else clustered around a person lying on the ground.
“Meh,” I think, “They can deal with it without me.”
((Perhaps the person is IBCF, Gradster, or Enceladus.))
((Is there any way that Daisy and I can join in?))
Hello. I regret to say I am leaving MuseBlog. I’ll miss most of you. But I will not be on here anymore.
Another wung comes running around the corner. I turn around and follow it into a room. There are people floating (!!!) in it. I say, “Hey, everyone! I’m here!†Armada notices me and I wave. Then suddenly, the mysterious wung that led me here flops over. I kneel down to try to see what had happened to it as two figure come running in… ((That’s your cue, Fishy and Daisy…))
((Scratch the two figures part.))
We are all startled when the person on the floor suddenly moves. He sits us and looks around. Nobody seems to recognize him.
“Excuse me,” he said politely. “What are you doing here? I though that when I built this cave I put in wards so no one could enter.”
“Well, we found it,” I replied politely.
“How did you get in?” The man sat up and rubbed his head.
“We came through the fountain in the maze,” I explained.
“I never built a fountain…” he replied.
“Then how did you get here?” inquired Sunrunner.
“I’ve been here for years, young lady, ” he said, getting to his feet. “I guard this treasure room, but more importantly, I guard the treasures beyond it.”
((157-No, that would be boring.
159- *sighs* I suppose it would’t do any good for me to beg you not to leave, so I won’t. Goodbye, Donaldo. We’ll all miss you. *farewell pies* ))
“You guard the treasure?” I ask the man. “So do we have to fight you or something to get to the treasure, or is there some kind of test? Because I’d hate to fight you, and we’re kind of on a treasure hunt here…”
((So, what does everyone think? Epic battle (“Charge!” *charges* *trips* Darn dress…. this could be a challenge) or mental challenge?))
Suddenly the image in front of me moves and slides upward, and I realize I’m not with everyone else. There’s a door ahead of me, so I go up to it. The mysterious wung is gone, but Maple is still here and she seems to be urging me to open it. I open it and I see, first of all, almost everyone! I think, “Hmmm… some of them are floating like in the picture-thingy I saw. But who’s the man?” I notice another door in the back of the room and I’m about to step into the doorway, when Maple tugs at my dress. I look down at her and she looks at me, as if to say, “Wait. Let’s watch.” So I stand at the doorway, waiting for someone to notice me… ((hint, hint))
The man shakes his head. “I do not want to fight you. I would not be able to, not in my current condition.”
“Condition?” I inquire.
“Yes,” he said, and pulled up his shirt sleeves to show us a mess of scars criss-crossing his arms.
“What did that to you? That’s awful,” breathed Armada.
The man sighed. “Alas, it was my own brother, many years ago. But there is no time for that now. We must hurry.”
“Hurry? Why?”
“Time is short. The maze and the spells that hold it together are unraveling, and if you want to get out alive, you must get to the treasure soon. And to do that, you’ll have to trust me.”
I look around at my friends, my classmates, standing around me. A few people shrug their shoulders, and Rainbowstar gives an enthusiastic nod.
I turn back to the man and nod as well. “All right,” I say. “Lead on.”
Maple nudges me forward, and I say, “Um… you guys, I got here. I suppose I’m a bit late.”…
((This time, don’t ignore me, please. People can join in if they want, right???))
We walk along, amid the swirling colors, under the jewel-encrusted ceiling. “What should we call you?” I ask the man.
“My name … you may call me the Architect,” he replies. There’s silence for a while agin.
“The treasure is currently possessed by an insane person who will stop at nothing to guard it,” the Architect explains. “I believe his mental deterioration is the result of the Thing that someone planted in the maze long ago. We built this maze together, you see, and I slowly built up an immunity to the Thing’s spell. He had no time, he was always the reckless one …”
The Architect explained, “The treasure’s keeper now worships the Thing and will do anything for It. He believes that the treasure should be kept hidden away so it doesn’t harm the Thing. Here, I’ll show you …”
He dug a small white orb out of his coat pocket. “This is my memory,” he explained as he smashed it on the ground. It shattered like glass. White smoke spewed from it, and formed a cloud in mid-air. A video appeared in the fog, like a projector screen.
* * *
The video showed the sinisterly glowing Thing in the center of the maze. A man whose face was in shadow circled hypnotically around it, chanting a song about Its glory. Someone else stepped cautiously toward him. The Thing’s glow illuminated his face, and I recognized him as a younger Architect. He wore a T-shirt and jeans, and I saw that there were no scars on his arms.
The Architect suddenly launched himself at the man, shaking him violently. “Wake up!” he pleaded. “We have to get out of here!”
The man’s eyes cleared as he realized what was happening. “Listen, I don’t have much time. I can’t escape.” Already his voice grew fainter, and his eyes lost their focus. “There … there is something in this maze that can save … ” He sank to the ground, his voice a whisper. “Something in this maze can stop the Thing. You must find it.”
His eyes closed, leaving the horrified Architect to whisper, “No … no. You can’t. Wake up. Please.”
The man opened his eyes, which were once again clouded and blank. He pushed the Architect aside and continued worshipping the Thing.
* * *
The cloud of smoke vanished. The real Architect looked solemnly at us. “Now you see why we must find the treasure. You have seen what the Thing can do.”
I shuddered, horrified by his memory. “Well, then, what are we waiting for? We destroyed the Thing, so all we have to do now is fight off the guard and claim the treasure!”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid it isn’t quite that simple.”
I enter. I am extremely late, but that has not stopped me before. I look towards the garden where I had buried my chi emeralds at the October ball. I sense a strong energy coming from a maze in the garden. I am not sure what is there, but… I am ready. I have… the watch Ωmegatrix. (Ж)
I carefully and silently position myself, watching for any sign of this… this… Thing that I detect. I slowly activate the Ωmegatrix, and set it on Carbon Wolf. If that Thing tries to attack me, I will quickly press the Ωmegatrix down and go from human to Carbon Wolf in a matter of seconds… Now the wait begins.
I suddenly feel a cold chill on my back. I turn around to see… a glowing, brilliant, THING. (?!?) Maple pulls me over, and I hide my eyes. I know that the THING can hypnotize me, and I begin to wonder when IT will leave. My back is starting to feel incredibly cold, and I’m hoping desperately that everyone will come back and notice me, when I suddenly realize something. “Maybe they can’t see me.” I mutter to Maple, “They didn’t notice me when I spoke to them. What if they’re under a spell?!?” I start to feel frantic. My mind is racing. “What if, what if, what if…”…
All of a sudden, I see the… Thing glowing bright. At the same time, I realize what the “Thing” was.
It was ‘Holy’ Nightmare, that… that… I couldn’t think of strong enough words except for…. THAT LIAR!
I quickly set the watch to Sh’irby. I press down the watch face and begin to transform into something with Holy Nightmare’s very DNA, a creature that that succeeds where Kirby failed. I was… Sh’irby.* Nightmare was going to pay.
*That is, Shadow Kirby.
((This is really weird. I have no idea what’s going on, so I think I’ll stay out until I find this making sense to me again, but I have one request: Please, please don’t kill the Thing. It’s not actually bad, it just makes people’s minds go wonky. Don’t make it out to be some evil world-domination thing.))
((Okay, well, this is what’s going on. (Or at least, what I’ve interpreted.) You and mostly everyone are following that man. That man is going to help you find the treasure. AJAR is in the roof, and has just changed into Sh’irby to fight the THING. (Why, I don’t know.) Meanwhile, Daisy*chain is safe(so far), making a daisy chain. Maple and I are trying not to get hypnotized, while fearing that you, Sunrunner, Rainbowstar, and company are hypnotized not to see other people, like me, Daisy*chain, and AJAR. Did I forget anything???))
(( *is lost* Supposedly Fishy and I are here somewhere, just (obviously) not in the maze. ))
Coming onto the roof, I see some kaleidoscopic lights issuing from inside the maze. “Don’t get involved…” I mutter. I can never keep up with this kind of stuff.
I walk around, gazing at the beautiful garden. There is a patch of daisies a bit farther from the maze, and I pick a few. Sitting under a tall birch tree, I start making a daisy chain…
((Sorry, had to get that in there. ))
We reach a small clearing, surrounded by hedges. Sitting in the middle is the man we saw in the Architect’s memory, his head bowed as if in prayer. He’s muttering, “The Thing … the Thing must live … they must never find the flower … I must keep them away from the flower … the Thing must survive.”
A flower. So that’s the cure. But what flower? There must be thousands of them in the maze.
((173.1- Okay. Thanks.
175- The Thing must survive! Seriously, people, if we kill the Thing, what are we going to do on the rooftop garden next year? I don’t want to be plot-inhibiting, but we could do something else other than tracking down the Thing and killing it. Plot twist, anyone?))
Looking at the Thing-worshipping man, I suddenly feel an incredible urge to do something. Not go off on another scavenger hunt, do something, here and now.
I walk up to the man and shake him violently by the shoulders, trying not to think of what happened to the Architect–and could happen to me. “Wake up!” I shout in the man’s face. “Get away from it!”
The man blinks, and stares at me, his eyes unfocused. “What are you doing here?” he mumbles. His voice is cracked and husky. “Who brought you here?”
“The Architect brought us here,” I say. “We’re trying to help you.”
“The Architect?” he murmurs. “Who…” Then he looks past me and his eyes focus suddenly, going wide. “Oh, no! You have to–”
I start to turn, to see what is alarming him, and something heavy hits me, bearing me to the ground. I struggle, but then there is a sharp pain in my arm, and everything goes black…
((I’m trying to make the Thing not the villain in this post, so I’d appreciate it if you could keep it that way. Who says the Architect is the good guy, anyway?))
The man whacks Armada over the head, and I hear several people scream.
“Everyone get back!” I yell. “And someone grab Armada!” The man might be crazy, but he’s dangerous as well. We fan out in a half circle around him.
“Get back!” He yells. “Do what she told you! You can’t have the Thing!”
“We don’t want the Thing,” screamed Rainbowstar. “We want to help you!”
This seemed to stop him short. “H-help me? But I don’t need any help. I’m perfectly happy!”
Everyone exchanges glances. This was going to be difficult.
I shake my head and turn to the group. “All right, does anybody want to stay with him?”
Everyone shakes their heads.
“Well, some people have to!” I sigh and close my eyes. I extend both hands into pointers and I spin in a circle. When I open my eyes, my fingers are pointing to AJAX and Rainbowstar. “OK, you two, please stay with him and try to snap him out of it. The rest of us will try to find the flower.”
“How?” questioned AJAX. “There must be a million passages in the maze.”
I considered this point for a moment. While I was considering, Armada sat up and shook her head. “Owww…”
“We don’t really have a choice,” I finally said. “We found someone who has been hurt by the Thing, and we have the power to save it. Not doing anything would be a worse crime than stealing everything he has!”
“The Thing already did that,” someone pointed out.
“Correct. So, we’re going to help him get it back. You know what? He isn’t going anywhere for the time being. Everyone, follow me. We’ve got a flower to find.”
I see a man under the control of Nightmare whack a girl, and hear several screams.
I summon my warp star, and fly over the garden. Suddenly, a soft glowing flower distracts me. I felt like I should eat it. I inhale the flower and become Floral Sh’irby. I produce the flower, and shake it. To my shock, some strange white pollen begins to fly around me like a shield.
I stealthily fly towards the man under the control of Nightmare. I wave the flower in his direction. A pollen shield forms around him as well. All of a sudden, there is a big flash, and the man collapses, exhausted. Unfortunately, Nightmare senses this, and gets mad. The glowing white orb disappeared, and, in its place, appeared what looked like a wrinkly blue cloth ball with yellow stars on it. This confirmed my suspicions. It was indeed Nightmare. He fired some purple stars at me, but, amazingly, the pollen shield blocked them.
I fired some of the powerful pollen at him, and, to my shock, he was instantly destroyed and became a puddle of paint. It was just a paint copy! I then hear a loud cackling. I turn around and see… DRAWCIA*?!
*Look it up on Wikipedia. Or, better yet, Google it.
“What?” I am very confuzzled at what AJAR just did. It seems that en has magical powers.
As AJAR fights some weird things, the man collapses, exhausted. I run over to him and prod him awake.
His eyes open. He looks dazed, but he isn’t hypnotized anymore. “The Thing is gone,” he murmurs. “I’m free. Where is my brother?”
He must have imagined it. Magical powers are inoperable at Muse Academy events.
I DO NOT HAVE MAGICAL POWERS!!!!
I HAVE A PIECE OF ALIEN TECH KNOWN AS THE “Ωmegatrix”!!!!
KIRBY (AND SH’IRBY) ARE BLOBS!!!
Oh yeah! You mentioned the Ωmegatrix earlier.
((Like in Galaxy Quest? What a great movie.))
No.
Like the Omnitrix on the Ben 10 series, only twice as powerful.
Young mutants and wizards sometimes apply to Muse Academy by mistake. We forward their applications to the admissions officers at Professor Xavier’s school or Hogwarts as appropriate, with a snarky Post-It attached. All of our students, I’m proud to say, obey the laws of physics.
((This is reminding me of last year’s Halloween Ball rooftop garden, with the intelligent pirahna plant attacking everyone. *reads AJAR’s other posts” Oh, that must have been you.))
Guilty as charged.
I suddenly get pulled into the bright light behind me. It seems that light was not the THING. I here a voice, different from Maple’s, echoing in my head. “Do not fear for your friends.” The voice says, “They are safe, for now. I will bring you to them.”
“Thank you.” I say, or rather, I think. The THONG (That is what I am going to call en.) shows me what has happened to everyone on the roof. I am only slightly surprised with the turnout. (That comes with reading lots of books.) Suddenly I am flying upwards…
…and find myself…
…next to Daisy*chain. I pull her up and drag her toward the maze. “What the…” she says. “We’ve got to find everyone!” I say, “Come one!”…
(179.1.1, 181.1) If you will recall, last year’s intrusion was crossed out as a violation of the intent and spirit of the May Day Ball. In addition, use of alien technology is an infringement of Muse Academy’s Honor Code.
((Of course, I’ve followed everyone here. Just assume that.))
((I was going to post, but I don’t really know what to say…should we ignore AJAR’s posts? Or just go with it…?))
I vote we ignore and continue with the story in progress.
As Cyndi pulls me into the maze, I protest, “What?! No!! I just wanted to stay out of the madness!!!” But I come along anyway.
“Uh, where are we going, exactly?” I am being led rapidly through the maze, and I quickly lose my sense of direction.
AJAR and I follow the others into the maze, supporting the man between us. He’s having trouble walking, as he’s getting used to controlling his own body again. Soon, we find the others.
“We saved him,” I explain, gesturing to the man. “AJAR did some weird thing with alien technology, and now he’s cured. So now all we have left to do is get out of here.”
((Maybe we should find some portal-thing that transports us back to the ballroom.))
Fine.
I look for a portal, but can’t find any.
Suddenly, I have an idea.
I use the Ωmegatrix to become WarpWung. (quit laughing!)
I teleport Rainbowstar, the cured man, and myself back to the ballroom.
[sarcasm]
And everyone lived happily ever after.
The End.
[/sarcasm]
Ignore that.
((182- The THONG? I know, it’s just amusing.
183- So the Thing doesn’t count as alien technology? Well, no, I guess not, since nobody really knows what it is….
Phooey. My plot to make the Architect evil failed. *sigh* Whatever.))
187- “Couldn’t we just go down the stairs?”
Dr Ivo Robotnik told me to say: NO!!!!
AJAR uses the Ωmegatrix to turn into some sort of warped wung. En vanishes, taking the cured man with en. I leap back in alarm as they disappear, missing my chance to get out. Cake.
Soon I catch up with the others. “AJAR teleported somewhere, and en took the cured man along,” I explain. “I hope they’re okay.”
((I think he took you with him. Reread his post.))
((Yes, but I didn’t want to go. I want to find the way out with everyone else.))
((Ah. OK. Carry on.))
188- I don’t know. It seemed like the THING at the time, but it wasn’t really, so I called it the THONG.
I run into the clearing, Daisy*chain coming in behind me. The whole group is there, except for AJAR, that man, and Rainbowstar.
“Hi…” Daisy*chain and I say tentatively. Some people nod and a few smile. “How do we get out?” I ask…
Oops. Okay, Rainbowstar is still there. The man and AJAR are the only ones gone. Sorry!
192- “Hmm. I guess we just try our best…. this maze was a lot easier to get into than it’s going to be to get out of. Unless someone can climb up onto one of the walls and tell us which way we should go… I’d do it, but it’s kind of hard to climb in an ankle-length dress.”
We walk around, looking for an exit. Finally, we come to a row of chambers, like little elevators. Each is only big enough for one person. A lit sign nearby says:
Heroes of the maze, your journey has come to a close. Enter the chambers to return to the ballroom. Watch out for the sanitizer.
I step into one, and the doors close. Seconds later, several nozzles on the walls begin to spew chunks of thick white foam. The foam sticks to me, coating my dress and shoes in soft white. It spreads to my face, and my vision is blanketed in foam.
I splutter as an icy jet of water hits me, blasting off the foam and soaking me thoroughly. The cold rinse is followed by jets of hot air, blow-drying my dress and hair. What was the point of that?
As the blow-drying jets die down, I begin to feel lightheaded and dizzy. A black portal opens in front of me, drawing me in. I seem to be floating, unaware of anything but the portal.
I plunge headfirst into the black vortex. Air rushes past my face as I rocket through the pitch darkness. After a few seconds, everything sort of fades into still, peaceful black.
(Will be continued on main May Day ball thread.))
I stepped in. I hated it. I Leaped into the pitch-black ballroom, dizzily
I stepped out onto the abandoned rooftop garden. Despite the paths being littered with the detritus of the May Day Ball, the flora remained charmingly beautiful.
Removing my tricorn hat, I stared out at the chill gray sea and munched on a leftover puffin puff found in the fridge downstairs.
“I think this thread needs to be closed until Halloween,” I said to the horizon, then left for the H&H via the secret passage under the pachysandra.