fh_adventures | Outside the Labyrinth

Outside the Labyrinth

It seemed the time for research and planning was through. In Jareth's address to the island, he gave them twenty-four hours to traverse a Labyrinth that seemed to change on a whim in order to take back the friends that he had stolen.

Team Distraction was entering first. Anyone with as much power as this Jareth seemed to would probably have some nasty surprises in store. They'd go in ahead of the second group to spring as many traps as they could while the other team ghosted in and headed directly to the castle.

Well, that was the plan, anyway. Let's see how long things went as smoothly as our would-be heroes would like.

[For the members of Team Distraction, please! If you want to RP out how the teams were formed and decided, there is a place to do so here! ~~Wait for OCD or the biting fairies will get you~~ OCD ready to go!]

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Well, now that she'd mentioned it . . .

Aphrodite leaned back, her sword against her leg. "You know, that's very nice of you. Really." She looked around. "You wouldn't have a scabbard laying around, would you? I didn't create one before my powers went kaflooey, and --"

She stopped, her eyes drawn to an object on the other side of the room. "What is . . . that?"

"Oh, a scabbard, a scabbard, I've got lots of scabbards. You never know when... ohhhh, you like that, do you?" She bustled over to pick up the item and buffed it against her shirt to get some of the dust off. "That's a nice little paperweight, isn't it?"

And, indeed, it was -- if you were looking for a paperweight that was solid gold, shaped like an apple, and inscribed with the word kallisti on the side. "Very beautiful. Very, very beautiful."

It was beautiful.

Just like her.

'Dite reached for it. "That -- was mine. Paris chose me." She'd bribed him. Well, they all had, hers was just the best, of course. "He chose me and I made Helen his." And started a war that lasted ten years.

But she wasn't thinking about that as she took the apple in her hands and held it tight.

"Oh, well... finders, keepers, you know. But I could give it to you. You like it, don't you? Why don't you just cozy on up and enjoy your little treasure, there? It's a very pretty sort of thing. Oh, my, yes." The lady shuffled around a little. "You see anything else you like?"

'Dite didn't really hear her. She was too busy staring, remembering.

"Athena wanted it. She offered Paris wisdom. But he refused." She chuckled, turning the apple in her hands. "Hera wanted it. She offered all of Asia. But Paris said no."

Her eyes were bright with memories, of golden temples, handsome men, beautiful women, and the glory of Olympus.

"But who can stand against the power of love? He gave it to me."

"And now you have it again. It's very beautiful, too. You just sit and look at it, why don't you? You can even see your reflection in there -- a beautiful lady in a beautiful apple." The Junk Lady hovered over 'Dite in what should have been a motherly fashion, but seemed more like a vulture waiting for its prey.

And while waiting for everyone else to regroup, Rinoa happened to notice her new friend inside, staring at a beautiful apple.

She didn't trust the Junk Lady. Nor did she like the way she was leaning over 'Dite.

Rinoa stepped in to the store again, determined not to look over at where the music box might still lay.

"Dite?" she said, reaching to lay a hand on the goddess's shoulder. "Karla's waiting."

There were more memories, but they were all obliterated by Rinoa's hand landing on her shoulder. She looked up, blinking, then looked down. Suddenly it was just a trinket, beautiful, surely, but -- nothing important.

Her beauty was a birthright. Her friendship with Karla had been earned, a trust granted for who she was, not how she looked.

"I'm coming." She tossed the golden apple up in the air in the vague direction of the Junk Lady. "Keep it. I have something better now."

And she joined Rinoa outside the place. "Thanks."

"Any time," Rinoa said, offering Dite a rueful smile. "They had ... something important in there, of mine. You, too?"

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Outside the Labyrinth

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode