Pithos 1

<Lena>	Over the loudspeaker: "We need Akemi and Athena to report to the tarmac immediately. Akemi and Athena report to the tarmac immediately. Bring an overnight bag."
<Kioku>	Akemi raises an eyebrow and glances upward on reflex.  "An overnight bag...?  Well, at least they're finally getting the idea that I want nothing to do with my family name..." she murmurs, getting up and pulling on her jacket, then packing a few essentials and putting them in her satchel in place of her school books.  "Guess it'll be a long trip if they plan to brief us there..."  She hops down the stairs and looks around for Athene, in case
<Kioku>	she needs help finding the location.
<Antichthon>	Damnit, why did everyone keep getting the name wrong? Bah, and she was just in the middle of washing, too. Did this have something to do with the alien from last night? She packed her bare essentials and a change of clothes. She passed on packing her homework. She ran across Akemi in the hall. She didn't look enthused about the situation. "Oh...Hey, Akemi. Do you know what it's
<Antichthon>	about this time?"
<Kioku>	"No idea!"  Akemi grins.  "They did call for us specifically instead of 'anyone interested', so at least that's something, right?  They haven't been calling people from our dorm much lately, it's been kind of disappointing... well!  Let's go, shall we~?"  She offers her hand and squeezes gently if Athene takes it, before leading her off to the small airfield the school keeps maintained.
<Antichthon>	She shouldered her bag, gave Akemi a weary smile, and took her hand. "Sorry if I'm a bit draggy. I didn't get much sleep last night. You heard about what happened, right? With the alien?"
<Kioku>	Akemi blinks.  "Iie.  ... Alien like 'from another dimension' or alien like 'suddenly there's extraplanetary life that we just found out about and are now probably scrambling to keep secret'?"
<Antichthon>	She opend her mouth. Shut it. Spent a moment surveying the airfield they approached. "...Depends. Am I supposed to keep stuff like this secret? I don't think anyone told me to keep it secret."
<Lena>	At the tarmac, the girls are greeted by one of the staff members. Thick packet envelopes are waiting with their names on it. Athene's is wrong of course. The plane was ready and waiting for them. "Ladies, take your packets and please board the plane where you will be briefed."
<Kioku>	Akemi shrugs and looks around as they get there.  "There's half a dozen organizations at least dealing with people like us and events like this, and it seems like the /only/ thing they agree on is not letting 'just everyone' know about it..."  She sighs and shifts to an attentive posture, taking the packet.  "Could we have a short explanation of what this is before boarding?  I'd hate to waste your time if it's something that bears refusing~"
<Kioku>	She winks.  "Not that much does, it seems..."
<Antichthon>	Ah, brilliant. Well, what's one letter? She took her packet and gave a polite "Thank you." She would have just done as she was told, but Akemi had the presence of mind to actually ask the question, and Athene nodded along. "Yeah, I'd, uh. Like to know, too."
<Lena>	The woman looks at them "You ladies have been chosen to takea trip to Belize to investigate and retrive an ancient pithos. Is that far too much for either of you to handle?" inside the packet are police reports, coroner reports with pictures...the photos are very gruesome....homicide is juicy.
<LipstickThespian>	From the dorms ran a lithe eatern european girl with dim white hair, carrying a canvas backpack in one hand and a sheathed sword in the other.  Elizabeth had been rushing to get ready for this, and in her haste had missed the clock running past the time.  She came up to the group breathing heavily and with a chesire smile on her face. "Sorry," she said with her slight Polish
<LipstickThespian>	accent, "didn't mean to miss the party."
<Kioku>	Akemi raises an eyebrow.  "Investigation and retrieval?  Fun!"  She hops up into the plane before glancing back.  "Liz?"  \Did they do a second call while we were talking?  Or a private one too?\
<Antichthon>	"Ah--er, no." She looked between Akemi and the woman. "We, uh, can handle it." And who was that, running up to meet them? Athene stared, longer than was polite. "Uh, Liz?" she asked Akemi.
<LipstickThespian>	"Hey there Akumi," Liz says with a small wave of her weapon as she heads for the plane to board.  "Glad I made it in time, it's been a long time since they called me out."
<Lena>	Elizabeth was handed a packet with her name on it "Nice of you to join us. Now if you'll all board the plane so you can be briefed as we head to our location. You're wasting time ladies." she motions to the boarding steps.
<Antichthon>	Athene was right after Liz. She squished her coils into whatever space she could. "I'm Athene," she said to Liz. "Nice to, um. Meet you?"
<Kioku>	Akemi quickly finds what she's come to think of as her 'usual 'seat, even if she hasn't used it in a long time.  She hums and opens up the packet, leaning back and glancing around to see how many guards they'll have to put up with this time, and who will be briefing them.  Then she looks to see if anyone has those communication armbands handy.
<LipstickThespian>	Liz found her way over to a seat and strapped in, settling her affairs with her stuff.  "Nice to meet you," she laughed a little. "We got a Liz and a Snake, you're the odd girl out this time Akumi."
<Antichthon>	This seemed like old hat to the other two girls, and Athene was feeling quite wet behind the ears. She opened her packet and her eyes widened.
<Lena>	The person briefing them is the woman who met them outside. There are -two- guards with them though they look as if they aren't going to be too involved. "Now then ladies. We're heading to Belize. As you will find in your packets, there are several strange happenings in the area we are going to and areas around it. GMU has managed to pinpoint the source of the activity to an
<Lena>	ancient Mayan city." she looks around at the girls "If you have a weak stomach or weak will I advise you to speak up now so we can let you off the plane."
<Kioku>	Akemi lets a small smile cross her lips as she looks through the packet.  It's a bit hard to balance her feelings on the matter - on one hand, some part of her likes seeing this, but on the other she /hates/ the absolute waste of the lives of her would-be friends.
<LipstickThespian>	Liz looked through the packet and tried to get as much from it as possible, flicking through it.  She was glad she decided on skinny jeans for this trip, but then again she did that always didn't she?  She glanced through the papers and then she glanced towards Athene.  Staring at her, eyeing her up, it was rude but it was needed.  Her pale red iris' searched the snake girl, and
<LipstickThespian>	she idly brushed a finger against her necklace as she looked.
<Antichthon>	So much for this being about Big Blue. She met the woman's gaze, almost said something, but--no. She had enough flaws, uselessness wasn't going to be one of them. Liz was staring at her, and she ignored it. "Um. Where is Belize?"
<Lena>	"Wonderful. As you will see in your packet, the strange activity has seemed to flair up abnormally in this area. Ther'es quite a bit more happening than jsut what you have in your hands, but we narrowed it to these stories for a reason. We have found a link between this and the ancient story of Pandora's box. However, what we're gathering is that there is far more to this than
<Lena>	history and mythology tells us. Many are unaware that Pandora's box was actually a pithos. An ancient wine vase. It's been long lost and many believe it to never have existed in anything beyond legends and myths. A new student at Sunnybrook proves this to be otherwise. Your job will be to go in and retrieve the pithos. As I stated before, your willpower will be tested as the pithos
<Lena>	will lure you to do things that you would not otherwise do. Be weary. You will be going in alone though there are two guards to aid if needed. We are trusting that you are fully capable to handle this retrieval mission on your own. Of course you will wear your tracking anklets and your communication bracelets" one of guards passes out the bracelets and the other puts the anklets
<Lena>	on the girls. "Are there any questions ladies?"
<Kioku>	Akemi flicks out a pair of glasses and puts them on, then slides the 'bracelet' to her upper left arm before looking up.  \New student?  We'll have to meet...\  "How 'obvious' or 'subtle' are we to be, with both our investigation and with regard to public exposure?"
<LipstickThespian>	Liz puts on her gear as needed and makes sure it's out of the way.  "Why are we taking a snake with us?  Is this out of the public completely?"  She nods to Akemi's question.
<Antichthon>	Oh, a test of willpower against temptation. This was a test, wasn't it? That was the only reason Athene would be named for this assignment. Everyone back home at the Keros facility thought Ashe would snap any day, start trying to eat people. Athene's jaw clenched. The tracking anklets were passed out, and for obvious reason's, Athene's was a bracelet. She mimicked Akemi and slid
<Antichthon>	both her bracelets up her arms. Liz's comment earned her a look. That her question about Belize was completely ignored didn't do much for Athene's confidence.
<Antichthon>	Thought she would snap*
<Lena>	The woman looked at Athene "Belize is in south america" someone didn't do well in geography right? "You will not be in the public eye. You will be in the jungle of Belize. This mayan city is uninhabited. Being seen will not be an issue and I encourage you to make use of all your skills to ensure your survival and safety. The information in your packet is provided to you so that
<Lena>	you will gain an understanding of what this item can and will make you do if you are not careful. Inside your packet you will also find a map of the temple. The temple leads down into underground caves that connect it to each of the two ancient temples on either side of it. While we do not have all the tunnels identified, the majority of them are there. On your maps you will find
<Lena>	the center most room at the bottom of the main temple where we believe the pithos is located. Tunnels will twist and turn and it will be up to you three to decide which ways you will go. Should you get into trouble, these two will come after you" she motioned to the two guards "In the event that they are also in trouble with you, I will come to aid." she really didn't want to get
<Lena>	her heels dirty but oh well. "This mission will pay each of you 350 dollars. Anything retrieved besides the pithos will bring you extra funds, however we encourage you to make this pithos your primary target or you will not get paid. Failure will result in no payment. I expect you three to not fail."
<Kioku>	"Why would a Greek artifact be in a Mayan city...?"  Akemi murmurs to herself.  Of course there's plenty of explanations, but it's strange in any case.  "So you have reason to believe that these cases," she gestures to the packet, "were all related to the pithos?  That maybe these people came in contact with it somehow?"
<LipstickThespian>	The Huntress was honestly more worried about her compatriots than anything they might face on the field.  A fucking crazy girl who could end her easily, and a snake girl she had no trust in.    It wasn't anything she was happy to do, because she knew that she had to rely on them to get any of the work done.  Backline, she'd play it carefully and keep from making any moves or
<LipstickThespian>	comments that might show a crack in her armor.  Playing the part of the team's jokester.  "I think you should take lead on this one Akumi, you are the best dressed of any of us."  Honestly? She loved Akemi, because Akemi was powerful on the edge of abuse, but she never did.
<Antichthon>	Well, at least they were getting paid. Athene found the map and tried to follow along with the briefing, but got lost halfway through. Why was a Greek artifact in a Mayan city? "That's not, um. As weird as you think." If her personal experience with Greek mythology was any indication, anyway. She nodded in agreement with Liz. "Yeah, Akemi. You're the strongest." She made sure to
<Antichthon>	meet Liz's gaze, and linger a moment.
<Lena>	"As I said, legends and myths tell us one thing. Reality tells us another. We have many reasons to believe this is all related to the pithos and the fact that it has managed to reach the surrounding area and influence others. We have found a strange link between it and what's commonly known as the seven deadly sins. At first it was all very strange but it comes together just too
<Lena>	perfectly. Take precaution and whatever you do....do not open the pithos."
<Kioku>	Akemi blinks and looks at the other two, then blinks again and blushes slightly.  "Err- if you insist..."  \Where do they get that idea?  I guess I've done this sort of thing before, but so has Liz, right?  Well... i-it's my responsibility to keep them safe then...\  She takes out her medical mask and a pair of thin leather gloves, then lets out a long breath and nods.  "Let's hope not to get separated, in any case... here, each of you take one
<Kioku>	of these... and one of these.  That way if something down there tries to induce panic, you can ward it off by breaking this one, and the other will let me find you no matter where you are."  She hands each of them a stick of rock candy and a small silver charm that looks like it should go on a bracelet.  \Right.  No opening...\
<LipstickThespian>	Liz met Athene's gaze, she watched the girl's brown eyes and broke contact to lean down and sort through her bag.  She killed monsters like that before she came to this school, and here she was on a team with it.  Well, at least they had tamed it right?  At that thought she shook her head, she had been at the school for months, she had lived with these people. They weren't monsters,
<LipstickThespian>	so this one probably wasn't either. Right?  She takes the trinkets from Akemi and puts them in a pouch on her belt. "Thanks," she says.
<Antichthon>	The rock candy, Athene had forgot all about her own stick. Good thing Akemi was prepared. She took the gifts and pocketed them. "Thanks," Athene echoed Liz. Her gaze was still on that one.
<Lena>	"Any other questions?" by the way they were already in the air cause...the magic of rp time
<Kioku>	Akemi shakes her head.  They've covered what she was worried about, for the most part.  And it sounds like they'll be going into ruins, rather than investigating the actual events that surrounded this.  Preventative measures, but... no, that does still raise one question.  "If it tempts everyone around it to do these sorts of things... is the GWU equipped to contain it?  Do you have a place it will be safe, and if you plan to study it, do you
<Kioku>	have people who you're sure can resist the effects long-term?"
<LipstickThespian>	"Got any firepower I can borrow?" Liz says as she motions to the sheathed sword beside her. "I was hoping I could get something more, well, modern. Automatic. Maybe with a flashlight.  Body armor would be nice too.  Prepare for the worst."
<Antichthon>	And Athene hadn't thought to get a window seat. Well, alright, /parts/ of her were in window seats, but not the important part. With Akemi leading them, Athene was much more confident. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. \Akemi will keep me under control.\ She let the other two ask the questions.
<Lena>	The woman nods "Yes we have. However we have reason to believe that once it is in the same area as the student we've connected it to, the effects will dwindle to a minimum or nothing at all given she is so close and taking the effects onto herself. Though to be on the safe side, we have somewhere to keep it and contain it, yes." she motions to the guards to give their spare guns
<Lena>	over "Are you ladies in need of anything else?" she looks between them "Athena? Any questions or concerns?" knowing it's her first mission.
<Kioku>	Akemi puts a hand on Athene's shoulder.  She'd probably wrap a tail around her arm if they were manifested right now, but alas the chance is lost.
<LipstickThespian>	Elizabeth is pretty comfortable taking the weapon from the guard, the benefits of government funding and UN backing means wonderful NATO based weapons platforms. "I'm good," she says as she goes about checking over her gear and settling in for a nap for the trip.
<Antichthon>	Athene didn't expect to be addressed directly. She tensed, almost snapping several seats in half. "Nope!" She said, too loud, too cheerful. Akemi's comforting hand helped.
<Lena>	"Wonderful. We'll arrive to our destination very soon" Lena's going to fast forward unless you guys want to rp out an entire plane ride to Belize.
<Lena>	(are we all ok with fastfowarding to the destination?)
<Kioku>	(I think so!)
<Antichthon>	(Yep!)
<Lena>	(LT?)
<LipstickThespian>	(Yes)
<Lena>	The plane arrives to the destination in Belize. The girls are ushered off the plane and pointed in the direction they need to walk through the jungle to get to the temples. It's a 15 minute walk on foot...and they're each given a machete to cut through the foliage. "Remember, do not, under any circumstances, open the pithos. Good luck ladies"
<Kioku>	Akemi tries to get through using the machete as little as possible, she really does!  But she's used to handling knives, not weighty things like this, and eventually gets too irritated with the tool and fires off a flurry of Ribbon curses to clear the path.  Stupid jungle.
<LipstickThespian>	Liz begins to cut, her expert use of blades really helping with the landscaping as she goes.  Still, she's used to cold climates, and she's already put off by the weather here. "It's way too fucking hot," she comments as she swats a bug that's trying to bite her face, "nature sucks."
<Antichthon>	As a lover of hot, humid environments, the jungle was the perfect place for Athene. "Um. at least the weather's gooeerrum." Nevermind. As for the Machete, Athene didn't know what to do with. Liz obviously did, so Athene offered hers to the girl. A snake didn't need a machete, particularly not in the jungle; anything she couldn't slither over, she could brute force her way through.
<Lena>	As they make their way through the jungle, clearing foliage, they will notice the  smell of dead rotting flesh permeates the air, so thick it’s hard to breathe. Flies buzzing everywhere, large fat flies full of whatever they’re feeding on. Animal carcases liter the area the further in they get. Big animals, small animals, domestic and wild. Some trees have entrails hanging
<Lena>	from them...some human some animal...There are snakes curled around the trees, some full, some not...some venomous, some harmless but they all seem to be watching the girls. The closer they get to the temples...they'll start to hear whisperings...creepy ghostly whisperings, voices whispering over eachother...a total of ten voices to be exact...luring them to the temple...inviting
<Lena>	them closer...."follow us..." one voice whispers "we'll show you the way" another voice whispers to them. The shrubbery around them shaking as each voice speaks. "Can we eat them?" "No you can't eat them, we need them..." "But they look delicious" "You gluttonous fuck, shut up" "Wrath take it easy" "Someone help...." that last voice is soft, pleading, sounding like a woman in
<Lena>	distress "Someone shut Hope up"
<Kioku>	Akemi flinches a little and wrinkles her nose behind the medical mask, glad for what little it does to help.  Fresh kills are one thing, but rotting is just disgusting.  \Even if it might be unwise to listen to them... that's where we were going anyway, whether they said something or not.\
<LipstickThespian>	Liz waves off the offered machete, one was good, she never learned how to use two effectively anyway.  Besides, she thought it was funny the snake girl was given a sword.  "Hey Akumi, quick question.  That shrine at school you run, is that thing free to use?"  She glanced over at the girl as she asked it.  She covers her mouth with her hand when she smells the rotting flesh to
<LipstickThespian>	try and keep from breathing it in.  The dead animals, that concerns her. The dead human parts, that worries her.  "Plan?" She asks Akemi as she looks around and starts to figure out exactly how fucked they are.
<Antichthon>	Athene hadn't even done away with her fur-lined jacket. Her tongue flicked in and out, sampling the smell of rotting meat, which a part of her found a bit alluring. Not that she'd admit it. The whispering made her draw closer to her companions, and clutch the useless machete to her chest. "...totally not spooky."
<Lena>	"Yes follow us" a seductive voice comes through "Fuck it, I'm eating them" "No Gluttony you can't eat them!" "You ruin all my meals" "Asshole your meals are laying around everywhere." The voices fall to a whisper, beckoning them closer to the temple. Soon they're coming to an area where all the foliage is dead...the ground is soaked with blood and it reeks beyond the point of any
<Lena>	sort of saving grace. Dead animal carcasses are piled on eachother, only a path to the door of the main temple in the center of 5 temples is available "Follow us" the voices call to them "We'll take care of you, we promise" giggling heard through the distorted voices "come come play with us" a childlike voice "No turn around! Go back! Go back!" "Fucking shut that bitch up!" a
<Lena>	blood curdling scream heard from inside the temple followed by the squishiness of flesh being ripped apart and bones breaking.
<Kioku>	Akemi giggles at 'totally not spooky'.  "Sort of.  Why do you ask?"  She quickens her pace, wishing she could afford to block out the smell without risking missing something else.  "Same plan as before... go in, but ignore the whispers.  They might help us find where we're going, but it wouldn't do to get used to heeding their words..."  She shivers a little at the myriad of tones, and fingers her thigh, pushing her skirt up a little.  \If I'd
<Kioku>	known where we were going, I'd have grabbed my heavy running pants...\
<LipstickThespian>	Liz drops down to look at the blood on the ground, going so far as to touch and it to check it for something she can't exactly describe.  "I'm gonna throw up," she says to herself more than anyone else.  Following Akemi towards the entrance.
<Antichthon>	Athene watched their flanks. That the voices didn't get along would have been funny, if they weren't fucking terrifying.  The smell grew stronger, and soon even Athene was holding her nose. Tongue. whatever. "H-hey, wait for me!" She dove after Liz and Akemi, trying to keep them both in arm's length.
<Lena>	The opening to the temple  is a standard large doorway, no door to open, you don't have to knock. Just walk on in ladies.... "Yes that's it...come find us....We're waiting for you" one voice said "Oh if she throws up can I eat it please please!" that gluttonous voice sounded excited "Someone put him back inside!" that wrath voice growled likea demon.
<Kioku>	"Let's hope it's better inside," Akemi murmurs.  \Better in that way, at least.  It's downright odd knowing that these are actual voices that the others can hear, and not just...\
<LipstickThespian>	"These voices are really starting to get to me," Liz says with a small laugh as she walks along with the group.  "I think I might actually like a few of them."  She looks to her team mates to see if they laugh at the joke with her.
<Antichthon>	Being a snake, Athene's underside was coated in rotting blood, now. "Ugh. D-do you guys have any idea how long it'll take me to w-wash this off?" She'd have to throw out her clothes. Oh no, not her favorite jacket! ...really, there were more important things to be concerned about, but if she thought too hard about the reality of the situation it might paralyze her. Liz's joke
<Antichthon>	earned a nervous laugh that devolved into fearful rasping. "H-hope's not supposed to be bad. I-I think."
<Lena>	"Come inside ladies...you sexy little vixens. I call dibs on the snake. She can slither all over me..." "Lust you disgusting fuck, leave them alone. Go hump Gluttony" "Screw your circus Wrath! You're not the leader of us!" "That's right! I am" "Fuck you vanity" the voices started to fight among eachother...bu tthey'll hear Gluttony whispering to them "I'll give you cookies and
<Lena>	pie if you come find me....come on....delicious cake with sugary sweet frosting..."
<Kioku>	Akemi frowns a little at Athene and hugs her arm.  "Don't worry, there are ways to get it out.  I'll help~"  She hums at Liz's comment and nods.  "Some might be likable if they didn't have such motives..."  She seems to have taken the joke seriously.  She blinks a couple times at the voices, and a smirk replaces the frown just as quickly.  "Not that they seem united in method, even if they are in purpose~"  \Well... we need to find 'them' in
<Kioku>	any case, even if it's what they want.\
<LipstickThespian>	Liz was happy she had on thick work boots to deal with the rotting blood.  Once they were inside however, she had to go over to the side and throw up the cafeteria food from earlier. She might act like a hardass but that was a fucking shit show out there.  Breath in, breath out. Throw up some more and then straighten up. Dig out her water bottle and take a sip.  "Let's get going,
<LipstickThespian>	find this thing."
<Antichthon>	Lust's commends made her stop and let out a little eep, but she was soon caught up with her team. Getting separated was the worst thing that could possibly happen. She gave Akemi a quivering smile at her kind words. "I k-know a little about, um. The box. Pandora. Pandora's box. I don't know if it'll help, though." What names had they heard so far? Her mind was too scattered to
<Antichthon>	keep a list. At least she didn't vomit. There was almost a gloating edge to the look she gave Liz. Somewhere under that fear.
<Lena>	As the team moves into the temple, they’re greeted with a musty smell of death. The walls are decorated with blood paintings...some fresh others obviously old. Poor Lliz....the blood and gore show wasn't over. There's a -very- fresh kill right next to where Liz puked. There's torches on the walls that just....light up and line every part of the dark temple, bringing light to
<Lena>	what's inside "Follow us, we'll help you come come" the voices whispered. "Hey lady don't puke on my dinner! Aww man I hate when one food touches another food!" "Gluttony...shut...up" "No, she ruined my panther." there's whispers beckoning them down the long stairway that leads down....it's the only way to go beyond the entrance of the temple.
<Kioku>	\That's... refreshingly straightforward.\  Akemi scans the walls for any sort of alternatives, then lets out a long breath - okay, not the best idea with this stench about, ugh - and looks back.  "Ready, then?"  Without waiting, she starts heading down the stairs slowly and carefully.  \As soon as I get back, I'm buying one of those Clean Air Fans to avoid ever dealing with this again.\
<LipstickThespian>	Liz was getting a little fed up with the voices. She could deal with things she could see, but harassment wasn't exactly something she was on board with.  Crazy people heard voices, and last she checked, she wasn't crazy.  So why was she hearing voices.  What the fuck is Athene looking at her like that for? So what if she threw up, she was human, and that gore was almost too much
<LipstickThespian>	for her.  "Hey Akumi, you got anything in your little trick back for smell? All I've got is herbs."  She patted her bag as she said this. She followed along dutifully.
<Antichthon>	"I never thought I'd be disgusted by meat," Athene murmured. Meet was divine. Rotting meat? It's own kind of delectable. But this...this was beyond rotting. Beyond anything natural decomposition could do. Furthermore, Athene didn't like how strongly she was identifying with Gluttony. Liz /did/ look pretty tasty... ...that had to be the voices, telling her that. She followed Liz
<Antichthon>	down the stairs. "Yeah, I'm...I'm smell-blind, here. I can't pick out a thing, except the yuck."
<Lena>	"Walk down the stairs...come come...we won't bite" "Gluttony will" "Hey Pride! Don't tell them that!" "Please girls turn back, don't come...don't...please" "Someone shut her up" "I got her!" Yes yes ladies...down the stairs you go? Or will the girls stay in the entrance?
<Kioku>	\Something dealing with smell...\  "Only if you want to make Lust's job /waaaaay/ easier," Akemi replies.  \I probably should avoid using too much magic with components that affect my own emotions while we're down here, too...\  And down she shall go until a passage is found or the stairs end.
<LipstickThespian>	Liz was a human, or the closest to it in the current situation, in a place full of creatures.  That didn't make her feel safer at all, but that was what she was trained for right?  No, she was trained to not do this. "Walking into a trap," she said aloud, "that's what they always tell you not to do. Yet here we are, walking right into it because we're the best they could find."
<Antichthon>	"Sh-should we really be doing exactly what they say? It could be, a, u-um. Trap." Liz voiced the same concern. Despite her reservations, she followed. Akemi's comment about lust made her wince. "I'd, um. Rather not." Best they could find, Liz said. "...Unless we're not supposed to come back."
<Lena>	As they go down the stairs the smell of death seems to lighten up and they get just a musty old moldy smell. At the bottom of the stairs they have a choice...left, right or straight ahead...."Go straight! All you can eat buffet!" "No, go left!" "Yeah go right!" "Wait that's my right, your left!" "I'm confused now." "All you can eat buffet!" "Fuck we're losing it guys" the voices
<Lena>	are turning into something goofy... "We're supposed to be scary we talked about this." "Did they bring her with them? I don't see her." "I still want that snake lady...she reminds me of medusa...oh that minx..." The map they have maps out all three tunnels they're faced with....Which will they choose?
<Kioku>	"..."  Akemi sighs.  "So much for the simple option of 'spring the trap'.  She looks back and Athene and grimaces.  "... We'll make it back.  We'll be fine."  She studies the map, then sighs again.  At least the air is clearer, though they'll probably have to go right back through all that to leave again.  "What do you think?  They're trying to pull us different ways, but the jar can only be in one place... I hope we don't have to pass some
<Kioku>	weird challenges to find it, or something."  Akemi glances down the left corridor, then the right, basicaly ignoring the center path.  "Well, no real time limit..."
<LipstickThespian>	Liz felt like she wanted to throw up again, the gore from before had stuck with her.  Empty stomach made the decision not to, still, she held her hands at her side firmly as she walked. A trained tenseness in her approach to the situation.  At the Medusa Minx joke she breaks out into a laugh, "oh my god. You minx you, that was great.  Seriously, that was a good joke." She looks
<LipstickThespian>	around, "I vote right. Honestly."
<Antichthon>	Mold, an unpleasant smell. Yet by comparison, the smell of heaven itself. "Thank the gods," She sighed. The voices were confused, and now so was Athene. Left...right..whaa? "I don't think insanity's supposed to be in the box...is it?" Lust's comments about medusa got a rise out of her. "Hey, that's my niece you're talking about! And...and you don't care. Of course you don't." Back
<Antichthon>	to Akemi. "They don't even know where they're trying to take us." She considered the options. "I-I vote, whatever we do, we stay together."
<Lena>	The voices whisper among eachother and then... "Ok we want you to go right." "Their right or our right?" "It's the same right!" "Not if we're facing them!" "Don't tell them where we are!" "Everyone move!" cold breezes are felt, the flames on the torches flicker "You have to trap them...close the jar...." the sound of...Hope? "I thought Lust gagged her?" "I did!"
<Kioku>	"Well of course Lust would be the one with a gag~"  Akemi teases the voices, smiling at the sound of 'hope' and... well... hoping that the logical-sounding advice is correct.  She flicks her hand up and gestures forward, then slips between Liz and Athene and stays just-a-little-too-close to both.
<LipstickThespian>	"Akumi," Liz says as they start to head off in a direction. "You uh, you're pretty good at dealing with this kind of thing right?"  She leans down and takes a breath. One hand brushing her gem, the only in her necklace, and the other the floor below her.  The gem glows a soft red glow, and she attunes herself with the hunt.  Trying as she can, to try and sense the anomolous, the
<LipstickThespian>	unknown, the not meant for this world.  Which way feels strongest, which one seems to have the most, well, unnatural?
<LipstickThespian>	'calc 4d3-8+4
<LipstickThespian>	`calc 4d3-8+4\
<LipstickThespian>	`calc 4d3-8+4
<GameServ>	4d3-8+4 = 4
<Mjeowlnir>	GameServ, = 4: 4:8-8+4
<LipstickThespian>	(Rolling The Hunt to sense the direction of the anomolies)
<Antichthon>	"'Go to Sunnybrook,' they said. 'It's better than here,' they said," Athene muttered to herself. "Yeah, this is sooo much better than being in an underground cell in Keros." At this point, there was no such thing as 'too close.' She followed along, and found herself wondering why she was still holding the stupid machete.
<Lena>	The anomolies are coming from the left, the source is the strongest from that direction.
<Kioku>	Akemi raises an eyebrow questioningly at Liz, then gives Athene a brief hug.  \A cell?  Don't think you'll get out of talking about that later...\  "Don't worry," she whispers.  "Mmh," she says a little louder in reply to Liz.  "I suppose, though it's been a little longer than I'd like..."
<LipstickThespian>	Liz was a little worried that their snake friend came from a cell somewhere. Kind of worrying honestly.  "We should go back, take the left instead.  It's either something worse, or our target."  She laughs a little, "we'll just stand behind Athena and hope the Warrior Goddess can protect us."
<Antichthon>	Quick smile to Akemi. While the spirit was certainly making this bearable, no amount of hugs would make this alright. A little longer than Akemi would have liked? "C'mon, I'm sure you see lust every day." It was supposed to be a joke. "L-like how I see gluttony. And how Liz sees, um." She met Liz's gaze. "Pride. And it's /Athene/."
<Lena>	"Oh see we're long time friends!" gluttony speaks up "I picked you for my favorite" lust spoke "Do you really care what her name is? She' snot as important as you" pride speaks up. Are the girls turning around to go the other way?
<Kioku>	Akemi giggles and shakes her head.  "One might think that~  And she gets my name wrong too."  She whispers the latter part.  "Mm, if you think something is there, let's try going that way.  I hope you don't mind if I have to slip inside either of you to edge them out..."
<LipstickThespian>	"Pride?" Liz says with a glance to Athene and a smile on her face. "I'll take that compliment, thanks /Athene/." She says the name sarcastically and with a bit of a laugh at the end. She turns the group around to head to the left, hurrying their pace a little. "I'd like if you didn't do that," she says with a bit of firmness.
<Antichthon>	"hhmnhmm..." It wasn't a 'no,' but the idea of Akemi inside of her was...well. "If you have to." She gave Liz a smile that was anything but friendly, but she did go down the hall after her.
<Lena>	"Yes get inside them...I'd love to get inside them" that was lust speaking. As they head down the other way, about 30 feet in...they come to a door with three levers. "oh oh oh they're at the first door! Everyone watch!"
<Kioku>	"Think of it as extra motivation not to let /them/ in your head, then~"  Akemi nudges Liz, then sighs at the byplay.  \... Levers.  Ooookay then.  Time to look for anything that might indicate what they actually do, I guess.\
<LipstickThespian>	Liz thought the lustful one was kind of annoying, but hey.  She looked towards the levers and stepped over to them, warning "I'm not switching them, just..." She held her stone in her hand, and in turn touched each of the levels. Trying to figure out if one of them is anomalous, or at least more so than the others.
<Antichthon>	Three levers. "This is going to suck, isn't it?" \And screw you, lust.\ Akemi seemed stumped, and Athene tried to help. "Maybe we're supposed to pull all three at the same time?"
<Lena>	Each lever has a symbol over it....Water...Fire...Wind.  None of the levers have any anomolous more than the other. They're all equal. "Ready? Gluttony lay it on them" "Ladies do you like riddles? Well I will give youa  riddle and your answer will give youthe right lever to pull. Pull the wrong lever and you'll be trapped with us forever..." the voices laugh softly "Feed me and
<Lena>	I live, but give me drink and I'll die. What am I?"
<Kioku>	Akemi rolls her eyes at the riddle and gestures to the 'fire' lever.  "And why would you give us the /right/ lever to pull?"  \Especially with the easiest common riddle?\
<LipstickThespian>	"Fucking riddles," Liz mutters to herself as she throws her head back. "Is that seriously what we've been reduced to?"  She closes her eyes and takes a breath as she decides that she's become exactly what she told her old Teacher she wouldn't: a dungeon crawler.
<Antichthon>	It was a riddle, and Athene treated it as she did all puzzles: Try to cheat. She slammed into the door with all the strength, hoping to knock it down.
<Lena>	Well...Akemi was right. But Athene banging on the door only made dust and small rock fall from the ceiling and onto of them. "Pull the lever kronk!" "Don't worry...when you get to my door, I won't be so easy on you" that's a new voice..sinister and promising.
<Kioku>	Akemi sighs.  \Of course they don't answer.  But their words taste...\  What /do/ they taste like?  Sincere?  She'll pull the lever if so, but caution is simply a survival necessity in this sort of thing.  Why does anyone ever make the 'right' lever the 'correct' answer?  For that matter, why do they make a 'right' lever at all if they don't even use the doors?
<LipstickThespian>	Liz stepped back as the large snake girl rammed into the door.  "Fuck!  Really? Calm down Athena, aren't you supposed to be the Goddess of wisdom?"  She reaches over and pulls the lever that Akemi pointed to, because fuck these voices.
<Antichthon>	One of the rocks hit Athene square in the noggin, but all it did was make her mad. Liz earned a very un-athenely vicious glare. "//fuck you,//" She said, voice deep and doubled.
<Lena>	"yes! Yes get angry! Yes! Kick her ass! Get violent! Do it!" wrath sounded like it was growing stronger. When the lever is pulled, the door rises, opening and showing what appears to be a never ending stone hall with doors on either side.
<Lena>	(Athene I need you to roll for willpower please darlin')
<Antichthon>	`calc 4d3-8+1
<GameServ>	4d3-8+1 = 1
<Mjeowlnir>	GameServ, = 1: 2:9-8+1
<Lena>	Athene resists Wrath...but only barely.
<Kioku>	Akemi takes a step back when Liz goes for the lever and makes an annoyed sound.  Then Wrath starts talking, and she glances with concern at Athene, putting an arm around her and leaning her head on her shoulder.  "We're all here together.  To help each other, right?"  She rubs the lamia's head where the rock hit and pushes a small trickle of soothing power into her, then slides out of the half hug and offers her hand.  "We probably have a long
<Kioku>	way left to go."
<LipstickThespian>	"Calm down," Liz comments offhandedly to Athene as she looks down the hallway. "Great, more doors." She watches down the hallway intently trying to figure out exactly how much of a trap this is. Then she starts to walk forward. "Alright, figure this one out.  Which is the right door, because this illusion is going to piss me off."
<Antichthon>	Steam was just about spouting from Athene's ears, but she was calming down even before Akemi put an arm around her. Deep breaths. "Yeah. U-um, yeah. Sorry." She slithered through the door and tried to think. Brute force wasn't going to work here any more than the last door. She felt along the ground, looked at the ceiling. "Maybe there's a hidden door?"
<Lena>	Are the ladies touching the doors? Or just looking at them? "Pick a door. Hell pick four!" "Slander stop messing with them! We want them to find us so we can...you know...." "Oh yeah uh...shit." "Fucking idiots." "All you can eat buffet! Snake Lady you know you want to nibble on those skins next to you! Take a bite go ahead, just a taste!"
<Kioku>	Sadly, Akemi can /make/ illusions, not pierce them except through the normal means of using her own natural senses.  Really... she just starts heading toward wherever the strongest source of emotion seems to be, hoping it'll be the jar they seek.  "Then again, they could all be real, going to different rooms..."
<LipstickThespian>	"Hidden door?" Liz mused at Athene's comment as she walked along. "Come on Athena. Pick one you lick and break it down. I'll back you up."  She taps the hilt of her sheathed sword with a reassuring smile.
<Antichthon>	They were singling her out as the weak one, Athene was smart enough to see that. She wasn't going to give them the pleasure. "If they want us to find them, why aren't they telling us the answer?" So much of this didn't make sense. Or, it probably did make sense, but she didn't have the brains to figure it out. She tasted the air, hoping for a scent. "Er," she said to Liz, and
<Antichthon>	looked to Akemi for confirmation. She did touch a doorknob her tongue, maybe she could figure something out by taste.
<Lena>	"Give it to them fear...do it...do it...." One door down the long hall opens and a very very large black and white tiger comes from it...growling....red eyes. "Ohhhh good one fear!" The tiger paces towards the girls very slowly as if it's stalking prey. The doorknob Athene tasted...tasted like pepperoni. Obviously it was a fake door.
<Kioku>	\Dammit Liz, quit antagonizing her.\  Akemi watches Athene and parts her lips to say something, but then claps her mouth shut again when she licks the doorknob.  \Why...\  She flicks her gaze away and keeps walking, then pauses with a blink and a small but feral grin when the tiger appears.  Her hand goes to her skirt again, and she slips a pair of throwing needles out from under it, at the same time as her eyes glow blood red for a moment,
<Kioku>	bestowing a Wicked Curse upon the creature.  \Let's just hope it's not some mere apparition.\
<Kioku>	4d3-8+9 In the event of cursing, smile.
<Mjeowlnir>	Kioku, In the event of cursing, smile.: 11:10-8+9
<LipstickThespian>	Liz watches the tongue on the door, it was, well kind of weird. Then she hears a door open down the hall and she's quick to pull her sword out.  The silver blade is held firmly at her side, gripped in an idle stance as she looked at the tiger.  She watches Akemi take the front and steps to the side of the hall away from Athene and any doors.  "Well, one alive animal right? Better
<LipstickThespian>	fix that."
<Antichthon>	"Hum," she mused. Licked the knob again, fully this time. "This door can't be real. Unless they're making lots of pizzas." At the sight of the tiger, Athene immediately tried to put herself between it and her friends. Tigers were smaller than her, what did she have to fear from them? ...except this one wasn't smaller than her. No, this one was a very big kitty. "Uh...This whole
<Antichthon>	thing smells fishy." Maybe she was smelling one of the doors.
<Lena>	The tiger started to flicker from being so solid to jsut an apparition and back again. "Fear? Hey guys where's fear? Anyone...." The tiger growled and then started to shrink into what it actually was...a cute and cuddly kitten that couldn't ben more than a month old. The kitten meowled and started to head towards the trio. Yes the kitten is real, it's not threatening or imposing
<Lena>	at all. Just an actual sweet innocent kitten. Some of the doors fade away. "Kill the kitten Athene...Look at that...you tried to help your friends and that one tookit away from you. Kill the kitten and show them how strong you are. Do it" Wrath spoke /only/ to Athene.
<Kioku>	Akemi looks very, very disappointed.  "So much for the hope that it was real," she mutters.  \Now they'll know better than to project something I can use to link to them though.  Still, what happened?\  She narrows her eyes and watches the kitten, suspecting another trick as she moves toward a door and adjusts her glasses.
<LipstickThespian>	"Kill it," Liz says as she looks at it with disdain. "We don't have time for this. Our mission is simple and the stupid tricks aren't worth it.   Kill it."
<Antichthon>	The unknown was scary. A big cat? pretty scary. A big cat when Akemi and a sword-wielding girl talking trash had your back? Not all that scary, particularly after trekking through a jungle of blood. Athene scrunched up her nose at Wrath's commentary. There was a kernel of truth to what he was saying, but it was a fucking kitten. "Screw you, I'm not killing a kitten." It was in
<Antichthon>	response Wrath, not Liz, but only she'd know that. She slithered and scooped up the little creature. "She's too young to even be without her mother!"
<Lena>	The kitten is totally innocent and purrs when it's picked up, as if it were super thankful for eing rescued. But...is that why they're here? A few of the doors disappear when the kitten is picked up, quite a few of the doors...leaving about 5 doors to choose from "Decisions decisions ladies." the voices whisper. "Come find us. we're waitig for you. Hope probably won't last until
<Lena>	you get here." the voices sounded so sinister. The walls began to bleed thick blood....
<Kioku>	\Hope.  Of course.  If she's what she sounds like, then maybe... maybe Hope is the embodiment of the emotion, or would at least feel like that?  So if I look specifically for that...\  Akemi runs between all the doors, taking quick breaths at each, looking for the strongest source of hope.  And hopefully it's /actually/ one of these doors, and not one that disappeared, or a spot where there was no door.
<LipstickThespian>	"Kill that fucking thing," Liz says as she brandishes her sword and watches blood trickle down the wall. "Nothing we find here, beyond our prize, is going back with us. We can't trust anything here."
<Antichthon>	"It's a //kitten//. And...don't you think, like, killing something is going to feed wrath?" She put the kitten in her jacket. Meanwhile, Athene latched onto the only lead she had, and tasted the remaining doors. Maybe one would taste real.
<Lena>	The kitten mewed innocently and nestled down in Athene's jacket. A soothing sensation will come over Athene the more she handles the kitten. Each doorknob tastes like different kinds of meat...except the very last one...it tastes like old coppery metal...why is there a metal doorknob in an ancient mayan temple? A staircase comes into fiew at the end of the hallway, torches light
<Lena>	the way. The voices all seem to go quiet for now.
<Kioku>	Akemi growls.  Useless.  Pointless.  It apparently isn't anywhere.  "Tone down the 'murder everything' attitude.  They probably expected us to kill it just to be safe anyway, so why do their work... for... them..."  Okay, that /is/ weird.  They kept talking about binding or gagging Hope before, but if they actually want her gone, why wouldn't...  "Why wouldn't they have killed her themselves already... unless they /can't/ and /do/ need us to do
<Kioku>	it for them?"  She looks at the staircase  Ooookay then?  One more path to check.
<LipstickThespian>	"Fuck," Liz says to herself as she keeps her weapon at her side. "Don't blame me when that tiger gets us all killed. Alright?"  She heads towards the staircase and ignores the doors.
<Antichthon>	Athene scritched the little kitten's chin. She was already more concerned about it than she was about //Liz.// Kittens that young couldn't survive without their mothers, could they? "This is the only door that tastes right," she said, not putting two and two together that a metal doorknob might be just as strange. The other two went for the staircase, but Athene figured there must
<Antichthon>	be a reason only this knob tasted right. She opend the door.
<Lena>	The stairs lead further down. One hallway was lit, the other dark. As Athene opened the door, she's greeted with a room full of scorpions but none of them come anywhere near her. The kitten mews loudly in her jacket and starts to gently claw her the moment that door was opened. Will the girls take the light path or the dark path? Will Athene play with the scorpions or shut the
<Lena>	door and move on?
<Kioku>	Akemi didn't 'go' for the staircase, she just looked at it.  She's still by the doors, and Athene.  "You found a 'real' one?"  \Dammit Liz, where are you going, you loose cannon?\
<LipstickThespian>	Liz stops at the top of the staircase and looks down, glancing back at the other two. "More hallway this way," she says. "What did you two detectives find?"
<Antichthon>	Kitten claws were sharp. "Ow--" Athene slapped her hand over her mouth when she saw what was behind the door, but her apprehension seemed misplaced, the scorpions weren't taking notice of her. Even so, Athene closed it to just a crack. "Yeah, but, um. There's a whole bunch of scorpions in there. And Cleo--ow!--Cleo definitely doesn't like it." To Liz, "Danger. Probably means its
<Antichthon>	the right way, right?"
<Lena>	The kitten mewed again. "Kill the kitten!" one voice screamed from the base of the stairs "KILL IT NOW!"
<Kioku>	Akemi blinks.  "... I think we go toward the shouting."  She edges open the door a little just to look in for a moment before stepping away.  "Yeah.  Definitely the shouting.  And apparently definitely not killing the kitten."
<LipstickThespian>	Liz turned to look down the stairs and quickly braced with her sword as she heard the screaming.  Darkness was calling to them. She made a few quick motions with her hand, and a small fireball formed in her hand. "Palic " she called in an ancient language as she cast the dark magic, and threw the fireball into the darkness towards the voice.
<LipstickThespian>	4d3-8+5 Dark Arts, Palic
<Mjeowlnir>	LipstickThespian, Dark Arts, Palic: 6:9-8+5
<LipstickThespian>	(if hit, +2 against anomalous things)
<Antichthon>	Athene made a disgusted noise, mistaking the voice for Liz's. "Shut up, Liz." Psycho. Akemi had spoken, and Athene hesitantly let the door close. Palic? Did someone say Palic? What the hell did that mean?
<Lena>	The ball of fire hits the bottom of the stairs "Ow! Bitch burned me! That bitch burned me!" the voice screamed and walls trembled "Gluttony stop being a big baby." "But she burned me!" "Now they know where we are, everyone move!"
<Kioku>	Akemi's eyes light up and she grins, skipping toward the stairs with a giggle.  "Aww, you wouldn't want to leave us, would you~  Come on, I know you'd just /love/ to come up here and play~"  She laces her voice with influence and emotion-warping power, beckoning the beings below.  \Don't run... or do, so we can have a chase~\
<Kioku>	4d3-8+12 Minus whatever penalty seems appropriate for relatively minor effect on multiple targets
<Mjeowlnir>	Kioku, Minus whatever penalty seems appropriate for relatively minor effect on multiple targets: 13:9-8+12
<LipstickThespian>	"Gotcha," Liz says as a bright smile crosses her face when she hears the commotion.  "Let's go Slithery," she calls behind her as she starts to head down the stairs towards the darkness. Weapon brandished.
<Antichthon>	Okay, that //definitely// wasn't Liz. Gluttony could be burned? ...Were those voices attached to real things? Real things with real bodies? Athene had just assumed they were magical spirits or something.  She was right behind Akemi, and did what she should have done already: tried to focus on detecting heat signitures. With any luck, whatever Liz had burned would be particularly
<Antichthon>	hot.
<Antichthon>	4d3-8+4 Snake Senses, Infrared
<Mjeowlnir>	Antichthon, Snake Senses, Infrared: 4:8-8+4
<Lena>	"She's trying to lure us up. I want to go up...lets go up" "No, don't go lust" "But she wants me, don't you feel it? She /wants/ me. Imma give her what she wants" The burned scent leads down the least illuminated hallway, and it's wounded. Meanwhile...Akemi gets a strong sensation of lust "You rang?" a voice only Akemi could hear.
<Kioku>	Akemi's breath catches and she shivers a little, then smiles.  ~That's right,~ she /tries/ to reply as if using a mental connection and hoping that it would work so she wouldn't have to speak aloud.  She hesitates a little before following behind the others.  ~I'm sure you don't want to fight, right?  In fact... I have a feeling I know just what you do want.  So wouldn't it be /so/ much nicer and easier to just show us to your vessel, the thing
<Kioku>	holding you here~?  We'd have so much more time for /fun/ after that if you did...~
<LipstickThespian>	Liz turns towards the smell of the smoke, and she heads towards the darkness further. Down the dark hallway. She whispers another Palic and calls a ball of flame into her hand to use as light.  "Come on you fuckers," she mutters as she looks around for something to swing her weapon at. "Let's do this!"
<Antichthon>	"He went down that way! B--er--Gluttony, I think!" Athene gestured to the darkest hallway. Fortunately, Liz was already on it. Liz was casting fire, and Athene put herself between Liz and the presumed danger zone--it wouldn't block Liz's line of fire, but anything that wanted to get to her would have to cross a snakey tripwire.
<Lena>	"No ther'e more fire, retreat! Retreat!" the voices whispered down the hallway "Kill the kitten" they urged, though sounding far away. Meanwhile, Akemi has Lust's attention "Oh tell me more. I'll take you there, but if I do, you promise we'll have fun yeah?" "Lust stop!" "Back off, Vanity! I'm working here! She's so ready...Your friends are getting closer...." the voice was speaking
<Lena>	only to Akemi. About 20 feet down the hall, it opens up into a large room...the room is filled with pithos'.
<Kioku>	Akemi purrs, still following the others.  ~Oh, we'll certainly have fun once we meet.  You'll enjoy it, I'll make sure of that.  Doesn't it get dull, listening to those others try to tell you what to do?  Tell you not to come to me, telling you to stop?  Why would you want to stop?  You'd much rather spend time with me, wouldn't you~?~
<LipstickThespian>	"I'm going to burn this fucking place to the ground," Liz said as she kept behind the snake girl and kept her fire primed in her hand to light their path.  "If one of those fucks would just get out here and show their faces this would go a lot easier!"
<Antichthon>	Athene kept right ahead of Liz, and kept her snakey senses on high alert. When they reached the room full of Pithos', she stopped. "Uh. Mmm...Akemi? I think we could use your help here!"
<Lena>	"She does know she can't see us right?" the whispers echo in the room of pithos' "Which one? Which one is ours? Can you tell? Betcha can't" the voices taunted them. Lust was moving along with Akemi "Oh you know it. Will your friends join us?" the voice purred. Hook line and sinker that one. Inside Athene's jacket, the kitten stirred, mewing very loudly "No get it out! Get that
<Lena>	vile thing out! Kill her! Kill her!" the voices hissed angrily.
*	Silvors has quit (Quit: Leaving)
<Kioku>	Akemi giggles as she walks into the room behind the other two and starts looking around, inspecting the jars and whatever they stand on for markings.  ~They might, if you're nice enough to them.  I can't say for sure, but it'll be unforgettable no matter whether they do or not.~
<LipstickThespian>	Liz bent down and ran a finger along the floor, brushing another along her gemstone.  "Fucking invisible fucks," she says to herself as she does so.  Trying to use her Huntress powers to locate an enemy, a target, something to hit.
<LipstickThespian>	4d3-8+4 The Hunt
<LipstickThespian>	`calc 4d3-8+4
<GameServ>	4d3-8+4 = 6
<Antichthon>	Athene looked at the Kitten. To the Pithos'. Kitten. Pithos'. Hell, it was worth a shot. She cupped the kitten with both hands, and held it up to the closet Pithos. "What do you think, Cleo?"
<Lena>	"You can make them. I'll help you." lust purrs in Akemi's ear, trying to entice her and influence her. Liz is able to track 4 of the entites, they're hiding behind a pile of broken pithos "Can she see us?" "I don't know shut the fuck up already" "shh shh shh they're so close!" Meanwhile the kitten...now known as Cleo....meowls and shows no interest in the pithos that she's held
<Lena>	next to. She tries to climb back into Athene's jacket.
<Lena>	(Akemi, i need a wp roll please. brains plus any bonuses)
<Kioku>	4d3-8+13
<Mjeowlnir>	Kioku: 15:10-8+13
<Lena>	<Akemi is more than able to resist Lust's enticements>
<Kioku>	Akemi hums to herself.  ~I could... it'd be fun, too...~  Is she actually considering it?  Well, there's little else she can do since these things apparently don't have emotions, and there would be no other way for her to track down the appropriate pithos or the... what are they, anyway?  ~Hmm... now you've got me wanting to know more about you~
<LipstickThespian>	"You're not naming that kitten Cleo, it's Mayan for fucksake."  Liz glances over to the pile of broken pithos and she tenses.  Finally, a target, she might not be able to see it but she can feel it. The Hunt is with her.  "Come on, let's get this party started!"  She took a step forward and whispered the ancient word to herself, as she ran towards the pile.  She slid to a stop
<LipstickThespian>	and cursed the air, "Klatka," and from her feet came a circle of runs that ran to try and trap the entities in an unseen cage bound by the magic of the world itself.  Sure, she'd be trapped in the cage with them, but fuck it. She didn't want them going anywhere.
<LipstickThespian>	4d3-8+5 Dark Arts, Klatka
<Mjeowlnir>	LipstickThespian, Dark Arts, Klatka: 4:7-8+5
<LipstickThespian>	(+2 if target to be caged is anomalous)
<Antichthon>	Athene wasn't willing to give up on her idea, not just yet. "This one? This one? How about this one?" She held Cleo up to as many intact Pithos' as she could. "Hey, you don't know where the kitten's from," she said to Liz.
<Lena>	The entities are caged. Which is made obvious y their angry words. Lust on the other hand is with Akemi, piggybacking on her and continuing to try and sway her. Cleo...meows at each pithos and tries to wiggle free from Athene's grasp when she's put next to one pithos in particular...This pithos is covered in blood...both fresh and old.
<Kioku>	Akemi keeps mentally flirting with Lust as she watches Athene and the kitten curiously.  A glance is spared for Liz, at least the people with her still have emotions to sense so she can get some small idea what they're up to without asking.  Not that it helps much - she can take a guess from where the voices were coming from and what Liz tends to act like.
<LipstickThespian>	"Alright," Liz says as she has them caged and brandishes her sword.  "Show me that pride, face me down, come on!"  Says the prideful one of the group to unseen things.
<Antichthon>	"Sorry about that, Cleo." She put the kitten back in her coat and picked up the bloody Pithos. "Girls, I think this one might be it!"
<Lena>	"You could ask your friend to let my friends go and we could all have fun together" Lust caresses Akemi's mind with a seductive tone. Meanwhile those four that Liz caught are quite angry "Oh fuck you lady" Pride spoke up "You only wish you were good enough to take me on, kid" it boasted but never showed itself. The pithos is missing it's lid...and Cleo is meowling -very- loudly
<Lena>	inside Athene's jacket. The moment Athene touches that Pithos, she'll feel every single entity that inhabits it....Vanity,Slander,Pining,Pride,Envy,Wrath,Gluttony,Lust,Sloth,Greed....not influencing, but she'll /feel/ them...
<Kioku>	\What the- don't just go touching it!\  "Seems /way/ too conspicuous..."  Akemi frowns slightly.  "Though, I wonder where the lid is..."  She shivers a little and smiles at the tone, briefly considering doing just that.  Lust /does/ make it sound pretty good...  not good enough to act on, but Akemi /does/ let her allure go just a little bit while she looks around for a lid that looks to match.
<LipstickThespian>	"You want to fucking go!"  Liz says to the voices as she waves her sword around, "I'll burn this whole temple to the ground before you can even think of fucking with us!"
<Kioku>	4d3-8+11
<Mjeowlnir>	Kioku: 13:10-8+11
<Antichthon>	Athene fumbled the Pithos, almost dropping it. "That's a trippy feeling..." She might be too scattered to keep a list in her head, but now that she felt the essences, she didn't need one. Something was off. "They're all in here...except for hope! Does that mean anything?"
<Lena>	"Oh you crazy bitch we've been fucking with you all this time. You're in OUR temple, and you're not leaving without us." it's that prideful voice again. Lust continues to caress Akemi's mind "Don't look for a lid, you don't need a lid. We're all friends here." it purred to her. As she looks around for the lid, she'll spot the bloodied thing with a gold inlaid inscription under a
<Lena>	few pieces of broken pithos and ripped human flesh. Allthe voices started whispering again, mentions of 'our pithos' and 'that's ours' can be heard. They're not -inside- it right now, but they're all in the room with them...4 of them are trapped and 1 is with Akemi at the moment, Pride is taunting Liz....and at the mention of 'Hope'...the kitten meowls loudly, clawing Athene to
<Lena>	get her attention at the name.
<Lena>	(fuck not done, i have another bit)
<Lena>	(nevermind I'll put it in the next one....go!)
<Kioku>	~Mmm... I /would/ love to be friends.  You'll still be mine if I do get it, right~?~  Akemi stoops down to pick up the lid with a gloved hand and looks at Athene.  \It /was/ the right one?\  "No," she murmurs in response to Pride's voice.  "Indeed we aren't leaving without you.  Taking you all with us /is/ the plan, after all... glad to know you're on board."
<LipstickThespian>	"Like I give a fuck about leaving here! I just want to shove this sword so far up your ass that you'll be choking on it!"  Liz is, well, half of it is taunting and half of it is just her being a little pissed off.
<Antichthon>	"Calm down Liz, you're gonna feed it! Ow--! Cleo!" Athene juggled the Pithos over to Kioku, either handing it over or putting it at her feet. She took out the kitten again. "What is it now?!" She asked, a bit tartly.
<Lena>	"I'm everyone's" Lust whispers to Akemi only. "She has the lid..." "don't let her put the lid on" "Don't put the lid on" Pride continues to taunt Liz and Wrath starts whispering to her "Look at your friends, doing nothing while you fight what you can't see..." feeding off her anger "Keep getting angry, it makes me stronger" Wrath's voice echoes through the entire temple. Aaaaand
<Lena>	Cleo...meows innocently at Athene. Anytime Athene mentions Hope, the kitten is trying to get her attention.
<Kioku>	THAT got Akemi's attention.  ~Everyone's...?~  She takes the offered pithos and hesitates.  ~Everyone's friend?  I... how can I be like you?~  \Okay, cat-that-is-probably-Hope, how do you expect us to 'capture' them?  What happens to you?  Why and how are you in that body?  Do we just have to put the lid on, could it really be that simple?\
<LipstickThespian>	"Feed it? Look at all those dead animals, they've got enough food for a really shitty party!"  She did feel angry, she really was angry and she couldn't stop that feeling.  "Fuck!  This is so stupid!  Can we just put an end to this?"
<Antichthon>	"Cleo knows something about Hope, but I don't know what!" Athene gripped her hair with her free hand. "Ergh, if I just wasn't such a retard!"
<Lena>	"Just let me in, sweetness. Let me live in you and I'll make everyone be your friend." Lust purrs to Akemi "Just say you accept me in you and that's all you need to do....go on do it..." Wrath laughs at Liz "Keep going bitch, you're only making me stronger" the temple started to tremble, the voice becoming boisterous. "don't let them put the lid on it or we're all trapped again..."
<Lena>	the voices whisper in a distorted manner. Cleo meowed more at Athene.
<Kioku>	~I... it might not be so bad...~  Akemi looks up as the temple trembles, narrows her eyes at the anger she's tasting from Liz, and focuses her power to warp those emotions, disperse the anger and morph it through several stages while pushing relaxation with... perhaps a /little/ of the desire that Lust is making it easier for her to feel.  "Cool off, Liz.  Be at peace with yourself, we'll be leaving soon enough, and taking them along..."  \In
<Kioku>	some form or another.\  ~It's hard to trust someone I can't sense though... how do I know you'll keep your promise~?~
<LipstickThespian>	Then Liz took a breath and she rememberd her zen teachings. How to focus her anger out of her combat, an old trick she had been taught.  It was still festering underneath but she could keep it hidden.  "Can we figure this out," she shouts to her friends, "sometime soon?"  Of course, the zen teachings were nothing compared to what Akemi could do.
<Antichthon>	As far as Athene could see, Akem was just standing there, doing very little to help. She didn't have a clue about the connection between the kitten and hope. Liz seemed on the edge, but she shared her sentiment; she wanted this over and done with, too. She took the initiative and tried to grab the lid and put it on the Pithos.
<Lena>	Lust continues to caress Akemi's mind "Just accept me into yourself and I'll always be with you. I can't survive without you, and if you reject me then I'll be attachd to nothing as I am. WEak and unused." Liz was still being poked at by Pride and Wrath until Athene put that lid on the Pithos.... "No! Nooooo!" the voices whisper a whirlwind and they become visible mists, all
<Lena>	looking like their names as they're sucked into the pithos "Kill that kitten! Kill the hope!" the screech as they're sucked in, one by one....Lust will be the last to go unless.....
<Kioku>	Akemi hops back, startled at Athene's advance.  "Wait a minute!"  She narrows her eyes.
<LipstickThespian>	"Wait a minute what?!" Liz shouts.
<Kioku>	"If the legend is at /all/ true, isn't 'hope' supposed to go in the jar too?  And if we can't sense her through it..."
<Antichthon>	"Should I just stand around uselss like you?"
<LipstickThespian>	"I'm keeping four of them from interfering, you're holding a kitten."
<Antichthon>	"I put the lid on the Pithos! And I'm talking about Akemi!"
<Lena>	"Yes keep fighting...kill eachother but firest kill the kitten, kill all hope"
<Kioku>	"They couldn't do anything to interfere anyway.  And how is finding the lid and then cooling Liz off 'doing nothing'?"  Akemi sighs and shakes her head.  ~I wouldn't want you to be alone or nothing...  I'll... I'll accept you, I'll let you stay with me.~
<LipstickThespian>	"Just, find a way to seal them away, alright?" Liz says firmly.
<Lena>	Lust purrs "wonderful" and Akemi will feel the entity enter her and create a connection...a bond with her. She accepted Lust and lust is there to stay. The kitten meowls loudy inside Athene's jacket.
<Antichthon>	"Screw the Legend!" Athene snapped. "Legends are shit! I'm an Egyptian lamia working with a Japanese spirit to get a Greek artifact from a Mayan temple! Legends say anything about that? Just put the lid on the Pithos!"
<LipstickThespian>	"I have four of those fucks in my grasp," Liz says motioning to the purple runes on the floor, "tell me where to put them."
<Kioku>	Akemi smiles slightly, then blinks at Athene and laughs.  "Alright, alright, fair point.  Liz, can you see if there are any other artifacts down here?"  Feeling the connection from and swayed by Athene's argument of 'screw the legend', Akemi holds lid and pithos out to Athene, then puts them together.  "But, ahh... \please\ invest in a pair of gloves for next time?"
<LipstickThespian>	"Alright," Liz says as she bends down and brushes a hand on her necklace and one on the floor.  Searching for anomalous artifacts that might be in the room.
<Antichthon>	Athene did have gloves! Unfortunately, they were fingerless. She took a deep breath; she had to have been really heated to snap at Akemi, of all people. She took out the kitten, pointed it at the Pithos. "Is this what you wanted, you furry shit?"
<Lena>	Alright! If it lid is on the Pithos,...."No! Nooooo!" the voices whisper a whirlwind and they become visible mists, all looking like their names as they're sucked into the pithos "Kill that kitten! Kill the hope!" the screech as they're sucked in, one by one....The kitten meows and purrs, nuzzling Athene happily, as if saying 'yes'.
<Kioku>	"Huh.  That... sounds like confirmation.  So what ever shall we do with you, little embodied Hope?"  Akemi looks at the kitten and... \Must. Not. Boop. Nose.\  She sighs and tucks the pithos under an arm after the screaming and misting is over.  "Well, I did promise to help you clean up, right~?"  Even so, she looks around to see if anything seems 'off'.
<LipstickThespian>	"That was it?" Liz says as she watches them get misted away.  "Well, fuck."
<Lena>	Liz's search turns up nothing here. After the pithos did it's job, all anomolies are gone...Except the kitten. The kitten makes it light up.  (sorry i forgot to put that in there)
<Antichthon>	A happy kitten was almost as effective at Akemi at cooling one's nerves. Athene held Cleo to her chest and felt her rage melt away. "Her name is hope," Athene corrected. And then after a few seconds, slapped her forehead. "Ooooh!" The kitten was Hope! Well. The important thing was that they did it. "Is it over?"
<LipstickThespian>	"We're not naming it Hope either," Liz says as she walks over and brushes off her pants quickly.
<Lena>	The kitten purrs at Athene as she's called hope, but then hisses at Liz as she says no. This kitten is emotional.
<Antichthon>	((I meant, "Her name is Cleo." Oops!))
<Antichthon>	Athene held Cleo--Hope--out to the Pithos, and watched it glow. "Told you the cat wasn't Mayan," she said to Liz with a friendly grin.
<Kioku>	"Iie, Hope is already her name.  We didn't decide it."  She giggles and shakes her head.  "They wanted her killed for a reason..."
<Lena>	Well ladies...as you stand around talking about this that and the other, the temple starts to tremble violently...the thing is obviously going to crumble.....
<Antichthon>	"Isn't Hope the only good one in the, um, Legend?" The temple shook again. "Oh. Right. That." She shared a look with Akemi and Liz, before darting back the way they came.
<Kioku>	"Ah.  No time for artifact hunting after all..."  Akemi pouts.  "Should have waited a little longer.  Oh well~"  She runs after Athene while trying to wrestle a roll of cloth tape from her satchel to fasten the lid to the pithos.  Just in case.
<LipstickThespian>	Liz starts into a run as she heads off. "Seriously, Hope is such a bad name!  We can't do that!"
<Antichthon>	"Cleo's better!" Athene dodged crumbling rocks. "...But we should probably talk about it later."
<Lena>	As they run, the temple crumbles, rocks and rubble missing them by fractions of a second.
<Kioku>	"Probably!"  \Hope /is/ a pretty bad name for a cat.  Or anything.  But her name is her name...\
<Antichthon>	Down the stairs, through the hallway, past the riddle-door, to the branching corridors. They'd taken a left, hadn't they? ...Did that mean they took a right, now? Athene hesitated, waiting for someone else to lead the way. "Totally not going to die," She said to herself. "Totally. Totally!"
<LipstickThespian>	"I'll take Cleo over Hope a thousand times!"  Liz lived for dungeons, and she kept running that way.  She knew it, she was trained for this and Athene could follow along.
<Kioku>	Akemi yoinks Athene to the right at the crossroads and up the stairs.  They'd gone straight, then come back, then turned right so they were in the left path, so coming back they go right again and it'll be outward!
<Antichthon>	"Thanks," she said to Akemi, wearing the expression of one who had gone beyond the fear of death and into the thrill beyond.
<Lena>	The kitten clings to Athene as they're all rushing out of the crumbling temple. The very exact moment they get out of the temple, the entire thing collapses on itself and turns into nothing but a pile of broken rock and rubble.
<Lena>	Oh and it's now dark outside.
<LipstickThespian>	"Three hundred dollars," Liz screams back, "that's it!"
<Antichthon>	Athene took deep breaths through a hole in the bottom of mouth, below her tongue. "...And now we're back in the stink!" She coughed. Liz was right. This so wasn't worth three hundred dollars.
<Kioku>	Akemi stares at the temple and Liz, then breaks out laughing, then coughing as the rotten flesh smell hits her again through her mask.  "Absolutely worth it.  Too bad we didn't find anything more in there though... and /really/ a shame that it collapsed, that was some pretty architecture!"
<Antichthon>	"You're totally crazy!" Athene said, and joined in on the laughter. She tried to make an air filter out of the kitten, to no avail.
<LipstickThespian>	The smell would make he throw up again, once they were past it all again.  "Fucking got our pet snake a pet cat at least, right?"
<Antichthon>	Athene was still giggling from her adrenaline high by the time they'd escaped the worst of the unnatural rot. Liz's comment made her stop laughing.
<Lena>	The kiten just pawed at Athene's face and purred softly. happy hope is happy. The path the ladies cleared is still there to show them the way back to the waiting plane.
<Kioku>	Akemi slaps Liz on the shoulder, then foregoing the need to keep /all/ of their senses intact, boops both girls' noses, and the cat's, then finally her own.  What's she trying to do by that?  Just attach an illusion of an absurdly strong scent of pine that /should/ block out other smells.
<LipstickThespian>	Liz is slapped and has to laugh at that.  "Smells like home," she says as she smells the pine, "thanks Akumi."
<Antichthon>	Mmm...pine. Athene sighed, happily. "...What are we going to do with Hope? Does she get turned over with the Pithos?"
<Kioku>	"Well... they said we'd be 'paid extra' for retrieving anything else... damn it!  We should have checked the other two ways first, there could have been something good down there!"  Akemi lets loose a ribbon curse at a particularly annoying vine that she dodged around before.  "Anyway, they might let us keep it instead of paying us..."
<LipstickThespian>	"Hide it as contraband," Liz says to the two, "you can do that right?"
<Antichthon>	"They did?" Curse her memory. Athene was in line with the other two, she didn't want to play along with the GWU if all they were giving them was 300 dollars for //this//. "Yeah, but how are we gonna hide it? I swallow it?" Supposed to be a joke.
<Kioku>	"Contraband doesn't meow... or get seen on the cameras walking around the dorm without paperwork.  I remember when Jackie got her cat, it was a serious pain to go through all that and find a justification.  Probably more likely to keep her if we /don't/ try to hide her."
<Lena>	The plane is waiting righ twhere it was left, the guards standing outside, being so watchful and whatnot...they're really eating churros and drinking horchata but nobody can see that right?
<Antichthon>	Athene frowned, scratched hope behind the ears. "If you say so, Akemi."
<LipstickThespian>	"Then you get to argu- ARE THOSE CHURROS?!" Liz is suddenly very very excited and she starts to run faster.
<Kioku>	Akemi rocks back as Liz takes off, then shakes her head.  It should be safe to drop the illusion by now, so she does.  Sorry, no more pine, just musty jungle.  "You'll just need a power-related excuse to keep her... if the policy is the same as it was back then, anyway.  I don't know anyone else who's tried to get a pet since then, so it might have changed..."
<Antichthon>	Food? Food! "If you eat all of them I'm eating you!" Athene yelled to Liz's back. To Akemi, "Um. Hmm. You got any ideas, Hope?" Yes, she was asking a kitten.
<LipstickThespian>	Liz, upon reaching the plane was going to argue with the guards for a churro. Or two. Still smelling like death and looking pissed.
<Antichthon>	Athene arrived not long after her. She wasn't as pissed as Liz but she sure as hell would be if they didn't have enough food to share.
<Lena>	The guards were protective of their churros and thumbed towards the plane. The woman emerges "Ladies! I see you've returned. And are in need of...cleansing. There is food and beverages waiting for you three inside the plane as well as showers for you to use." she looks between the three "Is that our Pithos?" she asked with a smile.
<LipstickThespian>	Liz heads onto the plane to see if she has some churros for herself. If not? She's going to raise hell.
<Lena>	There are three platters stacked high with churros, along with many other treats that can only be found in this region.
<Kioku>	Akemi glances down.  It's not that bad, the smell can't cling to her or her clothes, and the blood is just on her shoes.  She got lucky.  "Showers, on the plane?  Didn't see that coming."
<LipstickThespian>	Liz is going to have to work out extra hard this week, but for now, she goes to town on some churros.,
<Antichthon>	"Hope they're big showers." She'd put in some thought as to how she'd argue to keep the kitten. Power-related excuse...her mind-magic, maybe? For now, she barreled after Liz, leaving Akemi with the Pithos, and began devouring churros whole.
<Kioku>	Akemi stands there, four long strips of cloth tape in a crossways pattern holding the lid on the pithos - though hopefully, it can't fall off on its own.  No taking chances though.  \Something big, on a plane?\  She snickers and shakes her head.  "Time to go back then, is it?  Oh, you'll want to know... the temple collapsed after we retrieved this.  There was no time to search for other artifacts."
<Lena>	The woman reaches out for the pithos and handles it very carefully "Very good work. This is what we were after. Anything else was a bonus."  she smiled "The temple is not our concern any longer. We'll take this back and put it in safe keeping. Go on and board the plane, get cleaned up and enjoy a good meal. We'll be taking off shortly." they're not staying longer than they have
<Lena>	to.
<Lena>	The plane will take them back to the school. The girls are given their $350, they're allowed to take whatever food is left for their own...all the churros.
<Lena>	($350 per char and 3xp for each. )
<Lena>	-Run Complete-