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Post by TimePuppy on Nov 10, 2018 10:13:14 GMT
When Ariana put down the curious eel, Loveline grabbed hold of it. She ran her palm along its body. She brought it closer so she could see its details and smell it. She shook it a bit although she couldn't hear much from the ice Ariana filled it with. She decided against tasting it because she got the feeling that was a sensation she would never have to replicate. With the sensations of a creature she'd never seen before embedded in her memory, she went to the hub with everyone else.
"Crystal room sounds best so I'm voting with Ariana!"
"So, is she always like this? With the monster thing?" Cosmina whispered into Loveline's ear.
"Ha? Oh, yeah. She loves monsters. It's charming! Sometimes I'd make small monsters for her to look at like I did with that sea serpent. But even that didn't help until... She showed up." Loveline looked at Elyssa a cold gaze behind which the flames of jealousy started growing again from the mere memory of her fruitless attempts.
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Post by Vapovile on Nov 13, 2018 10:22:55 GMT
"Crystal room is it, then!" Elyssa declared, giving a slight chuckle when she saw Ariana and Loveline messing with the dead leech-like creature. She'd have to make sure Ariana keeping that thing was cool with the HWIC, since there were numerous regulations on bringing back animals into the current ecosystem, alive or dead. She grinned when Ariana pointed out the monster room for last. "That might be the best idea Ariana, since that's probably the most difficult room in this place! But also the most exciting!" Elyssa said, not wishing to spoil the surprise. She looked on with confusion at Loveline and Cosmina whispering to each other, so decided to swim up to Ariana.
"You are ok, right? Not too bad of a reintroduction to these things?" Elyssa asked, scanning Ariana and nodding when she didn't see anymore bite marks from the leeches. "Of course I never doubted you could deal with these little guys. You're probably the strongest one here!" She exclaimed, opening her arms and inviting a hug. If Ariana accepted, Elyssa would whisper "Great to have you back on the team" and pat Ariana on the back twice during the hug. If the hug was denied, Elyssa would simply flash a thumbs-up and continue swimming.
Regardless of the result, the group would soon find themselves at the mouth of the crystal cavern. Elyssa stood at the entrance, stopping everyone from advancing. "Ok, so this room is a little...weird. Since we have 4 people here...is there anyone here that feels like they are good with memory puzzles?" She asked, looking at the team.
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 16, 2018 5:36:30 GMT
Ariana blushed when she was praised and kicked the ground. "'S nothing." She looked like a deer in the headlights when Elyssa offered a hug, but quickly grinned in response and squeezed her back. "Oh nooooooo." Ariana whined when Elyssa said the room required memory skills. "Well it's a good thing you have me here! A seamstress is trained to notice and remember every detail she sees." Cosmina puffed up her chest with pride. "Or hears." Cosmina's horns twitched.
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Post by TimePuppy on Nov 16, 2018 18:04:52 GMT
Loveline's heart tingled with pain as she watched the hug between Ariana and Elyssa. She closed her eyes and tapped her thigh in a rhythm she used when she wanted to push bad memories into the recesses of her mind. It was her only defense against all the intrusive memories others could just forget with time. And this was such a memory for her. She followed the group almost on autopilot until they reached the crystal entrance and Elyssa started talking.
"Memory puzzles?" Loveline asked. "My memory is literally perfect! I'm sure I can handle whatever puzzle we face!" She puffed out her chest and gave a self-satisfied smile. She could show off now!
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Post by Vapovile on Nov 18, 2018 20:52:40 GMT
The responses made the smile on Elyssa's face grow slightly. "You have a perfect memory?! That's awesome, Lovely!" She beamed, then turning her attention to Cosmina. "Right, you're a seamstress like my sister! Of course you'd be good with details!" Elyssa stated, looking over to the gate. "Well...I'll give you all a hint here. There is an...interesting mechanic here. We're going to be split up when we enter. Sooooooo...since I was with Love for the last one..." Her eyes fell upon Cosmina, pulling the doll toward her. "You'll be with me this time! So here's your hint you two..." Her confident smile flashed again as she placed her right hand on her hip. "If you want to explore new areas...find a mirror. Clear? Good!" And with that, Elyssa pulled Cosmina into the doorway, where they both disappeared. When everyone came to, they'd find themselves in a stone room, the blocks worn with time and moss growing along the cracks. Small streams of light filtered in through the holes in the wall and ceiling. Elyssa and Cosmina Loveline and ArianaIn Loveline and Ariana's room, they'd see a large stone carving of a sun along the left wall, the right jutting out slightly. The small section contained a long crystal slab that shined a rainbow of colors...though it didn't seem to reflect their own images. However, if they looked to the right, they would see both Elyssa and Cosmina standing roughly where they started. Cosmina and Elyssa's room looked similar to Loveline and Ariana's, but it had a carving of a cloud on the far wall. Elyssa jogged over to their own crystal wall and waved at the others, neither side able to hear the other.
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 19, 2018 23:40:37 GMT
Ariana blinked the light out of her eyes until she was able to see her surroundings clearly. She could feel they weren’t underwater before she saw it. Being on land in a wet swimsuit was uncomfortable, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She looked at the carving without comprehension. “Loveline?” She looked until she saw her companion. “Woah, Elyssa and Cosmina! Think I can… break that?” Ariana drew back her fist. They could all be together! That couldn’t be bad.
“She shouldn’t be doing that, should she?” Cosmina blinked at Ariana from the other side of the crystal, adjusting her contacts. Her sonar normally made up for her poor vision, but she needed lenses to see through the crystal and the water was wreaking havoc on them. Her horns were clicking, taking in the relief behind her.
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Post by TimePuppy on Nov 20, 2018 8:20:12 GMT
Loveline looked around the strange stone room. Is this another escape room? How lame! Before she could look around though, Ariana decided she wanted to punch the crystal that showed the other group's room.
Loveline jumped in front of the mirror before Ariana could punch it. "Whoa! Don't do that, Riri! What are you; Martha?" Loveline said then realized Ariana probably never met her. "Anyway, there's probably a reason they're not here with us, so we shouldn't destroy anything. Maybe there's something they need to do in that rainbow room. Let's just look around our room for now."
Doing as she preached, Loveline walked over to the second most obvious thing in the room. She touched the sun, looking for any jutting parts she could press. If she found nothing, she'd try knocking on it while looking for hallow parts. Anything that could be used to interact with it. If once more she found nothing, she'd look at one of the more regular looking walls.
"Hey, Riri... You never mentioned Elyssa before. How'd you two meet, anyway?" She asked while checking the sun.
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Post by Vapovile on Nov 23, 2018 16:18:47 GMT
Watching as Ariana pulled her fist back, Elyssa began to wave her hands in front of the crystal wall while shaking her head. "No...no no nononononono!" She called out, knowing that Ariana couldn't hear her but doing it anyway. She breathed a sigh of relief when Loveline jumped between Ariana and the wall. "Phew, Loveline got in the way. Anyway...this wall is important to the mechanic of this section. Soooooo..." Elyssa swung down her backpack once more and took out a small sheet of paper and a pen, drawing on the note and holding it up toward the wall. The note read 'Come back to this wall in 5 minutes', Elyssa making sure the other two saw it before shoving the two items into her backpack and slinging it back onto her back.
Cosmina would see a large portion of the current room with her sonar; the cloud carving along the far wall, the doorway that led to an outside portion where rain could be heard falling down, and three blocks of ice along the left wall. Seeing the rain and feeling the chill coming from the doorway, Elyssa tossed Cosmina a fuzzy green coat as she zipped up a long brown coat from her backpack. "Here, it's pretty cold here. Aren't you glad I made you bring that heated coat?" Elyssa asked, confidently smirking at Cosmina. Inside of Loveline and Ariana's room, they would also find a door along the far right wall, this one shining a pleasant ray of sun into the dark stone room. Their weather was considerably warmer, and the spot where the ice cubes had been in the other room sat 3 pictures; a strange creature with a single eyeball in the center with 6 slim tentacle-like appendages flayed out around it on the far left picture, a thin sponge-like rectangular creature with grey skin and one eye along each side of its body, and what appeared to be a white-furred praying mantis with two large eyes along the sides of its head.
The sun Loveline touched had 8 rays coming off it; north, north east, east, south east, south, south west, west, and north west. When Loveline would press a ray of the carving, it would light up, while the previous lit-up ray would dim. If Loveline looked out the door, she'd see a calm blue sea that surrounded a dirt walking path toward another stone room.
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 24, 2018 7:51:06 GMT
“But they’re… okay.” Ariana took a moment to process what was going on. They had looked like they were trapped in some weird rainbow dimension, but she quickly realized that was an illusion. “Huh? Oh, it was years ago. I was just a kid. It was… a little after I met you.” She squeezed her eyes shut to concentrate. “I don’t remember where it was. England I think. She and her friend Rachel opened up a portal on an old tree and I jumped in before Warden could stop me.” Her face fell at the mention of Warden, but it started to pick up again as she continued.
“I had been all over the world, but this was the first time I ever saw something like that… a magical place. There were traps and treasures and giant spiders. I felt a little bad when I hurt one, but Elyssa was so kind. She helped me get over it.” Ariana smiled wistfully at the memory. “So, any idea what that’s doing?” She touched the rays herself, looking for changes, but didn’t find any. Lacking answers, she hopped over to the wall paintings. Her isntincts told her to touch, but she hesitated. What would Elyssa do? She looked back at Loveline. Love was also smart, and she touched the sun thing. Ariana reached out and tapped the praying mantis.
“Why thank you!” Cosmina accepted the coat and wrapped herself up. She sighed doing so. She looked like an idiot, wearing a coat over her swimsuit. Cosmina leaned out into the rain and shuddered. She loved the sound of rain, but she could do without being out in it. “We could use Ariana over here. I bet she could move that ice.” Cosmina clicked at the blocks, searching for weaknesses. “Hey, you live in Britain, right? Like Ariana?” She asked Elyssa as she tapped away at the frozen cubes.
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Post by TimePuppy on Nov 24, 2018 19:52:52 GMT
Part of Loveline was perplexed by Ariana feeling bad about hurting the giant spider. It was a long time ago killing creatures stopped bothering her. Ariana was still so pure though. But the other part of Loveline was bothered that Elyssa got to help Ariana go through something like that when Loveline didn't get a chance. Even now Elyssa was doing more to help her recover than Loveline could. Why did Elyssa have to be such a good person? But maybe it was better this way... At least Ariana isn't sulking anymore...
"That's nice to hear. Not you being bothered, Elyssa helping you," she said. "You know, if you really want to explore ruins, I'm sure I could find some! Then we could be both gem girls and ruin explorers. We'd be the one and only pair of ruin exploring magical girls! A combination the world's never seen!"
It wouldn't be a new experience for Ariana, but it would still give them a connection she couldn't have with Elyssa. Although it did bother Loveline that she couldn't find something unique like that for her. And then it occurred to her that she totally could.
"Or better yet! We could visit other planets! Other worlds we've never seen! Like Arty's world and all the worlds they discovered! What do you think about that?"
While talking, she thought more about the sun. The sun rises in the east, it goes to the north, and it sets in the west. So Loveline decided to touch the rays in that order. If she saw nothing happen, she'd try doing it again but add north-east and north-west to the order. If that also did nothing, and Ariana's fiddling with the carvings also had no effect on their room, she'd suggest they go out the door and see what else was here.
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Post by Vapovile on Dec 19, 2018 2:41:59 GMT
The sunbeam that made the ocean sparkle began to rove. It drifted vaguely eastwards at first, impossibly pushing through the wall of the building Cosmina and Elyssa were housed in. It drifted again, northwards and west, until it came to rest upon one of the three blocks of ice along the wall. The ice melted as if the sunbeam was a ray of heat, sloughing off like a time-lapse of thaw more than like reality. A form began to take shape in the thawing ice, something so white it could be mistaken for part of the frost until it began to twitch. Something broke free of the crumbling remains of the permafrost. Mantis-shaped, coated with dripping wet fur, it turned a mammalian snout to the air and sniffed.
Elyssa took a step back when she saw the sunlight shining through the wall and melting the strange beast inside the ice cube. “...they touched the sun dial. Get ready, Cosmina!” She yelled over, pulling out her short sword and dashing to the side. The mantis wobbled as it stepped out of the ice block, shaking its furred legs of the water droplets. It let out a few strange whistle-like howls as it came to its senses. It seemed to stop its hissing when it saw Elyssa, who was near the doorway to the rainy outside. It let out a loud howl and leaped toward the adventurer with incredible speed, Elyssa diving out the doorway and ducking underneath the beast’s grab with its claw. She then brought her legs up and kicked the strange creature in the face with both legs, sending it reeling backwards.
“Cosmina! Try to attack it from a distance!” Elyssa called over, readying her short sword and using the flat to parry the mantis’ strike and using the opportunity to drive the sword at the mantis’ armored chest, piercing a few centimeters through one of the gaps and making the beast let out another strange howl.
Right before Loveline’s eyes, the northwest ray of the sun carving lit up. Similarly, the mantis carving Ariana poked began glowing. Their dim glow lit up the room, tantalizing, uncertain in their meaning.
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Post by HungryHunter on Dec 19, 2018 6:46:56 GMT
"It's a nice offer, but only Elyssa can open up Ruins." Ariana mumbled. "...wait, your dad has a planet!?" Ariana twisted her head to Loveline, missing the Mantis carving lighting up. "That would be amazing! I can show you and Elyssa and Cosmina some of the places I've been too! I know all sorts of crazy places all over the world! Lucky that I can be a translator, eh?" She turned back and saw the lit-up mantis carving. "Huh, this wasn't glowing before." Ariana looked around to see if this had any effects on their environment, but all she saw was a path, through the open air to another room.
"They touched the what?" Cosmina watched the sunbeam move, quickly piecing together what was going on. "Wait, they change stuff in our room?" She looked at the crystal with worry. Ariana had a bad track record with impulse control. She turned back to the sunbeam and saw it melting the ice, unleashing the beast within. "Ah! What is that!" Cosmina yelped. She pulled away, shock only slightly balanced by admiration for Elyssa charging the creature.
Her horns began clicking, scanning every layer of the mantis-shaped beast. "I have no idea where any of its organs are! Argh, where's Ariana when you need her!?" She saw only a mass of strange blobs in the insect, none of them human organs in any way. She had no idea what to target, so her attentions went to the joints of its legs. "Stand clear, this could be goopy!" Cosmina yelled before firing off a precision blast for one chitinous knee.
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Post by TimePuppy on Dec 21, 2018 22:22:36 GMT
There was no reason why only Elyssa could open ruins! Get some magic dynamite and those magic old places would open up just like that! Loveline didn't say her thoughts out loud. At least she made some progress with setting up excursions with Ariana, even if the former avatar couldn't completely grasp what Loveline was aiming for.
"Arthur never told you he's not from Earth? Huh, I would've thought he'd bring it up sooner or later. Then again, he doesn't talk about it much. Well, I don't know if we could organize it so we'd all go off-world, but we can do that just the two of us. But visiting places you've been to we can totally do as a group!" Even if it would be better without Elyssa.
Loveine turned her attention back to the carvings. The only thing that changed in the room was them lighting up. Loveline looked through the door and didn't see any change outside. She was just about to give up and suggest they go outside when she looked into the mirror. Even if she couldn't see anything other than Elyssa and Cosmina, it was clear from their movements that they were either dancing terribly or they were fighting something. "Hey, Ariana, could you touch that carving again? The glowing one?"
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Post by Vapovile on Dec 31, 2018 3:52:59 GMT
“Don’t worry about finding organs, just fire!” Elyssa called out to Cosmina, the sonic doll’s blast ripping through the mantis’s back right leg and breaking it clean off. Green liquid seeped out of the stump as the strange furred creature let out a sound that a mix of a roar, and a collection of clicks. Elyssa had taken her sword out of the gaps in its armor and leaped away, the creature moving its head to look between Cosmina and Elyssa.
Standing higher on its remaining 5 legs, the mantis opened its translucent wings and flew upward, straight at Cosmina. It aimed to grab the doll in its strange claws at the ends of its arms, then attempting to fly out the room. Cosmina wailed hopelessly, limbs flailing and sonar failing as she panicked. The mantis let out a few more clicks as it rocketed around the corner of the room and flew toward the door, but a strange weight threw its flight path off and all 3 skidded to the dirt bridge outside, the rain now falling onto their heads.
The mantis lay dazed for several seconds while Elyssa got up and pried its right claw open, grabbing Cosmina with her left hand by the back of her coat. “Get out of here! Aim at it’s win-” Before Elyssa could finish, the mantis’s claws grabbed the back of her own coat and began to take off again, Elyssa tossing Cosmina back toward the room. Elyssa then turned and drew her short sword once more, kicking her legs up and stabbing the mantis in the soft abdomen, drawing more green liquid.
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Post by HungryHunter on Dec 31, 2018 7:08:27 GMT
“I mean, we could go alone, but everything’s more fun with friends!” Ariana poked the wall carving a few more times and nothing happened. “Nothing! What’s going on?” Ariana jogged back and gasped at what she saw. Cosmina and Elyssa in danger! “Oh nooo, did I do that!? How do we help them!?” She hesitated to touch the crystal after Elyssa and Loveline warned her off of it before. “I think we have to touch it. Let’s do it at the same time, okay? 3, 2, 1!” Ariana grabbed Love’s hand and pushed the other to the crystal.
There was a tiny tug that she couldn’t place and she was in what must have been Elyssa and Cosmina’s room. She didn’t take the time to register the differences, just noticing the most important one: the giant mantis that had Elyssa locked in its claws. “I’ll save you! Sapphire Sea!” Ariana yelled in an oddly shrill voice. She charged, not transforming at all, and uselessly jumped off the ground, swinging her small fists fruitlessly in the air.
She looked down at her hands and noted the green coat she wasn’t wearing before, the weird feeling in her eyes, the lightness of her body. She wasn’t herself! Her horns clicked and she became instantly dizzied by a flood of information. “I’m… Cosmina!?” Her head spun as her horns clicked off over and over, making a dizzying series of snapshots. She saw the world like no human mind was meant to, seeing Elyssa inside and out, the mantis on every layer. She knew the softness of the monster’s fur by the softness of the image she got; the hardness of stone was sharp and clear in her mind’s eye. Ariana collapsed onto her knees and vomited, unable to control the rising tide of nausea.
In the same instant, Cosmina stumbled back away from the crystal. “Ugh, what…” She instantly knew something was wrong. The ground felt too far away, her body too heavy. She looked down and instant confirmed her theory. Not only was she tall, not only did she have some meat on her bones, she was Ariana! “I feel so blind without my horns.” Cosmina rubbed the side of her head, entangling her fingers in curly hair. The other hand was searching her body, delighting when she found it.
She pulled a translucent blue stone from her pocket and held it aloft. How did she use this? She had to feel what it was like to turn into an adult while she had the chance! “Uh… moon prism power! No? It’s morphing time! Precure: Open my heart! By the power of Grayskull! By the power of Grayskull but the She-ra version! HENSHIN! COME ON!” Cosmina kept uselessly rattling off transformation phrases, none of them doing anything.
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Post by TimePuppy on Dec 31, 2018 8:35:53 GMT
Ariana didn't need to grab Loveline's hand to get her to touch the mirror. But Loveline let her do it anyway. As soon as Ariana pushed her hand against the strange crystal, she felt a tug as if being pulled through the mirror. Before she even realized what happened, she saw she was in the air flying towards a dark, weeping sky. She looked up and saw the white mantis and got startled. Did she black out after going through that mirror? Or did she suddenly get amnesia for some reason? The clattering of metal against stone drew her attention back down. A sword bounced off and rolled on the ground. Did Love drop that just now? Why was she even holding Elyssa's sword? There's an obvious solution to this situation! Loveline willed her hand into a claw and swiped at the creature's leg. Instead of going through the limb, her hand just gave it a good slap.
"What?"
She looked at her hand and tried transforming it again. Nothing. Did the mirror sap away her power when she came in here? Oh no! That explains the sword, but she doesn't even have that now. What can she do, what can she do... She looked around the room and saw a green-haired girl kneeling on the floor. Alright, Cosmina's here, but where's Ariana? Where's Elyssa? What the hell happened when Love blacked out!?
"Cosmina!" she yelled, struggling to get her arm out of the coat. "Cosmina, sonic boom this thing! Hurry!"
Her arm finally slipped out and she fell down. She expected a painful landing, but the mantis got her above a body of water. Cold water. Salty. Ugh, that mirror got her into a real mess. She started swimming towards the nearest mass of land she could see through the rain.
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Post by Vapovile on Dec 31, 2018 16:12:30 GMT
In one instant Elyssa was in battle with the polar mantis...the next; standing in front of the crystal wall, watching as her body dropped the sword she'd been using and try to slap the mantis. Looking at both her hands, Elyssa let out a sigh. "Well...this is unfortunate." She said, looking down at her body. Despite its appearance, Elyssa could feel that the form had been altered from its original. The different body shape, suit and lack of hat let her conclude that she was now in Loveline's body. Glancing over at 'Ariana', Elyssa heard the strange references and rolled her eyes.
"Heh heh...so you're here too now, Cosmina!" She said, walking over to where Cosmina was changing her transformation phrases. "Tell you what...I'll tell you the magic words if you help me search this room. We have 5 minutes until that crystal will let us switch again. You see..." Elyssa looked around the walls, and at the light coming from the doorway. "...this whole thing is based around getting information from both sides. You see that mantis?" Elyssa pointed toward the lit up mantis symbol. "They were probably messing with the dial, and affected our room. So...while they hopefully deal with the mantis, let's investigate!" And with that, Elyssa began to search around the room.
---
On the other side of the dimension, where the sky was dark and rain poured down from grey clouds, the polar mantis let out another shriek when Loveline fell down into the water below. The mantis soared through the air, using its claws to tear the coat in half and let the pieces fall down onto the second area across the bridge. The mantis scanned the area, unsure of which target to go after. Its mind was quickly made up when it saw the sorry state 'Cosmina' was in, diving down and attempting to grab the doll by the shoulders and take both of them into the water. The mantis fluttered its wings through the waves like a propeller, dragging Cosmina's body with it. After a few deep growls, the creature reached its head down and tried to bite a chunk out of 'Cosmina's' neck.
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Post by HungryHunter on Dec 31, 2018 18:01:34 GMT
“So it IS a phrase!” Cosmina put the stone away. She stared into the crystal, watching her own body topple onto its knees. “Are you sure they’ll be okay?” Worry made wrinkles around her eyes when she looked back at Elyssa and reluctantly left the crystal wall. “Is there any way to help them from this side!?” She called, jogging after Elyssa. She felt absolutely bizarre. It wasn’t entirely bad. She was tall! Nearly as tall as Elyssa already!
Click. It wouldn’t stop. Click. Ariana’s skull was pounding. Click. How did you control this!? Her head was swimming with each snapshot of the world. Everything was in different frequencies, bringing her different layers and images of the world. She wasn’t even sure how she determined that much. Before she could figure it out, she was snatched off her feet and thrust into the ocean. Ariana opened her mouth to yell and water rushed in, but she didn’t feel the panicked agony of drowning. Cosmina could breathe underwater! Wait, no, she just didn’t need air!
A smile finally came to Ariana’s face. Cosmina’s body wasn’t as strong as hers, but she still knew how to swim, and she knew how water worked! Water transmitted sound better than air! Ariana didn’t know how to make her horns stop or how to aim them, so she focused on amplifying it. She squeezed her eyes tight and concentrated. CLICK. A blast of sound came out in all directions, blasting through the water just as the mantis reached its head down to sever her neck.
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Post by TimePuppy on Dec 31, 2018 19:16:01 GMT
Seeing the mantis flying overhead and tearing up the coat made Love glad she was no longer wearing it. But then the mantis turned around and flew towards Cosmina. The doll was still on her knees and, as Loveline could now see, quite sick. It grabbed the doll by the shoulders and started dragging her through the water.
Loveline wasn't sure what she could do without her powers, but she started swimming towards Cosmina anyway. There had to be a way for her to help. And that's what led to her whole body getting shaken up by the explosion of sound coming from Cosmina. She wasn't that close, but she felt like her internal organs were dancing the jig and she wanted to vomit. Forget saving Cosmina now, that mantis was probably dead after that. Heck, maybe Love should've died too! Maybe the crystal taking her powers also made her tougher. Maybe.
Loveline slowly swam towards the land bridge and dragged herself onto the beach. She lied down for a bit to collect herself. She looked towards Cosmina, hopeful that she was still alive.
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Post by Vapovile on Jan 2, 2019 2:01:48 GMT
Listening to Cosmina's concerns, Elyssa confidently looked back, briefly staring at the crystal wall. Judging by the way Cosmina's body was flailing around...the mantis likely moved onto attacking her now. "I...do think they will be ok. I trust that Loveline and Ariana can handle that mantis...especially after I already opened a few wounds on it." Elyssa remembered how she was able to stab the creature twice. "And if there was a way to help them from this side...hm..." She looked toward the sun dial panel.
"Well...no, we shouldn't release another monster to try and fight the mantis. Let's just investigate while we're here!" And with that, Elyssa jogged out into the dirt bridge between the two buildings, and made her way in front of the second. A giant stone slab stood in their path, words etched onto the surface with strange white mist coming out of the lettering.
Only when the Cube of Gluttony, Absorbs enough of the Cradle of Life, Will desert become rich, And the treasure revealed.
But beware, for if the Cube joins the Cradle of Life, The path will become impossible, Lead the Cube across the path, And beware its touch.
The path ahead will open, When the Cube of Gluttony removes the barrier, But only in the Land of Darkness, Will its presence matter.
Once Elyssa had read the riddle, she turned to Cosmina. "Now! Before I give my own thoughts...what do you make of this riddle?" She asked, folding her arms across her chest. It felt strange being in this new body, but Loveline seemed enough like herself that it wasn't too different.
---
The mantis let out a loud shriek when the sonic blast rippled through its body, destroying several blood vessels and forcing it to let Ariana go. The creature opened its wings and swam away toward the sea, disappearing a few yards out due to the murky, rainy environment. Everything seemed...calm now.
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