[Other FULL] Of Mice & Magic [T][IC]

[Winter]

Yvanna of Whisker Woods

Just when the druid was about to be triggered by the faint mention of the word "fire" from the conversing mice, the door of the castle yard opened, with a sound that seemed like it was saying, "Welcome." if it was sentient. The silence draped around the back of her mind blossomed with the all-familiar melody of nature, albeit softer than normal, but its return was comforting and tranquility passed through every iota of her being. She relaxed her grip on the tendrils underneath the talking mice, the tip of the vine slacking and gradually disappearing back into the soil. She could hear the song of the flowers that lay in the path beyond. She could almost hear some sort of slow breathing, perhaps caused by the temporal sorcery and shenanigans.

Yvanna moved out of the bush, or perhaps the bush detached and left itself behind, one could not tell. She paid no mind to the jabbering mice, moving past them and perhaps shoving them aside if they accidentally stepped into her path. If she was rude, she could not care. Does the predator care for the feelings of its prey? Sauntering down the walkway that bloomed before her, leading her towards the grand foyer of the castle, Yvanna took note of the stone effigy of a smiling sloth, and regarded the bird and the feline that shared the same fates. The colour grey was slowly covered in a pale green as the druid flexed her powers; a layer of lichen slowly crawled across the stone sculptures.

The floor of the foyer was coloured abnormally to Yvanna. It was tiled in black and white, and felt so unnatural that it unnerved her. It didn't help that she wasn't able to call on vines through the floor. There were statues sitting on some of the black and white tiles, of figures and things she did not recognize. Each of them had an inscription which meant nothing to the druid because druids do not know how to read (well, maybe just this druid in particular because she never cared to learn how to write or read) and she half-bet that whoever built or was in ownership of this dreadful time-stopping castle was silently laughing and mocking at her confusion and inability to grapple with the statues in front of her. How she wished the entire place would just crumble to a burgeoning of flora. One thing did draw her attention and piqued her fascination: the walls. They had designs imprinted on them, of people dancing and Yvanna almost imagined them moving whenever she looked at the walls from a different angle. Hallucinating like the dancers were mirroring or adjusting their movements relative to her...

Cursed castle...



​

 

[Groc]

Sir Ben of Junkheap
​

​

As Sir Ben and the Thief approached the campfire, the elderly mouse who started it rose to greet them. "Someone has certainly come prepared. It's not often I see helmets such as that." She looked over both Sir Ben and his companion, nodding with approval. "Good evening, the both of you. I assume it's no accident we've met here. Come, come: You're the very reason I set up camp."

She waited for the pair to sit, taking a seat herself. Sir Ben took the opportunity to introduce himself. "You assume correctly, m'lady. My companion and I suddenly found ourselves before this majestic structure, when our attention was called to the soft glow of your fire. I am Sir Ben of Junkheap, at your service!" He bowed his head to Eleanor with a flourish.

"I've come in search of the Door of Tomorrow... And, I'm just now hearing how much that phrase makes me sound like a batty old lady... Nevertheless, that door and its Key seem to be the only clue towards solving our recent troubles with time. Has that drawn you two here, as well? The oddities in shifting time?"

Sir Ben shook his head, taking a seat. "Unfortunately, 'twould be false to say the shifting time is the reason for our arrival. The cause of it, mayhap, but 'twas not our goal to seek the source of the disruption. Now that we have arrived, however, entry to that castle may be our only hope, as well as a grand and lofty goal!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a brilliant pink flash lit up the sky. "Good Heavens!" Sir Ben exclaimed, looking around as flowers started to bloom. "Whatever could that light mean?" There was a trumpeting sound, drawing his attention to the door. A miniscule elephant stood there, though it began growing at a slow but steady pace. More importantly, the imposing doors, once barred to the mice, now stood open.

Sir Ben leapt to his feet, his voice high with excitement. "Behold, comrades! The mighty doors stand open! Truly, 'tis a sign! This is no time to rest, for destiny awaits us!" He bowed his head, overcome with emotion. "An open door is an invitation, one we would be foolish to deny! Also rude, for Chiriwheat himself invites us into his home, to provide us with adventure, glory, perhaps fortune, and a chance to cure our land of the time bending malady that befalls it!" He looked up at the castle, clenching his hand into a determined fist. "So come! Rise up, and venture forth into the unknown with me! What say you?" He pointed at the open doors, the sight filling him with determination.
​

 

[moon]

Cronald Ripipip - the Wizard

The sudden flash of light caught the wizard off guard. He spun around to try and spot from where it had originated, but before he or the other male mice could quite grasp what had happened, Cronald felt the ground beneath him rumble as a root suddenly emerged and knocked him off his feet. Blinking away the dirt from his eyes, he only just spotted the elderly mouse as she disappeared through the huge castle doorway.

"Well," he grumbled as he got back up and grabbed the staff he had dropped. "I'm not the hastiest individual in this company, I see!"

Another mouse had started talking and now bowed his head, overcome with emotion. "An open door is an invitation, one we would be foolish to deny! Also rude, for Chiriwheat himself invites us into his home, to provide us with adventure, glory, perhaps fortune, and a chance to cure our land of the time bending malady that befalls it!"

Cron whisked away some more traces of dirt from his face as he gave the other mouse a skeptical look. But the other one took no notice, as he looked up at the castle, clenching his hand into a determined fist. "So come! Rise up, and venture forth into the unknown with me! What say you?"

"Well," Cron said again, bit louder this time. "I'm sure that's what we all came for, right? Or at the very least, it's what you gentlemen came for, and we can probably assume that I did too." He shrugged and added to his earlier ranger companion, "you alright there, Arty?"
​

 

[PastelPhoenix]

Artean Bellepetal
Ranger Extraordinaire

Artean jumped a little at the much larger mouse's sudden exclamation, startling him more than the sudden flash in the sky for some reason. The sudden rush of an unknown mouse past him didn't help much either, nearly knocking him to the floor in the process.

"A little rude," he muttered under his breath, only then noticing the Wizard picking himself off the ground. A little feeling of guilt flashed through Artean as he realized he probably should have noticed someone right next to him falling over. A small buzzing sound next to him told him Billas didn't much care for the stranger's actions either, and Artean ruffled the large bee's head to calm him down.

"You alright there, Arty?"

"Yeah," he responded to Ripipip, "I didn't actually get hit by them, and I guess I'm just a little nervous. Like the feeling of finding a new cave, never know if there could be a bear in it."

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts and ensure everything was adequately fastened in place, Artean began slowly walking towards the entrance.

"If you know what I mean with that," He called back, "I don't know how often you explore caves. But we should probably get a move on, nothing good ever happens when you just stand there."
​

 

[Afterglow Ampharos]

To her encouragement, Eleanor notices another two mice approach, one of them eager to announce his arrival with a question that doubles as an introduction.

"A wizard, are you?" Eleanor wouldn't have guessed by how he appears. Certainly, he has a staff, but it doesn't look a great deal different than hers. Perhaps, she wonders, that is the point. A magic staff in disguise, she begins to suspect. "Well met, Ripipip, and you, Artean."

But the wizard had a question, didn't he now? "Yes in fact, I have come in search of the Door of Tomorrow."

She turns her attention toward Sir Ben, who reports his arrival being for other reasons. "Happenstance, then? No matter. You appear to be well prepared regardless." She's encouraged that even those who came here without meaning to, share a goal of entering the castle.

Music: Reunion

A flash in the sky, of the most unusual hue, attracts Eleanor's attention upward, but by the time she looks up to see it, it's gone. She caught it only in her upper peripheral.

The other mice caught it too, that's for certain. Eleanor chooses to stay quiet while they exclaim, the old female watching for causes of the flash in the sky, and in the castle that entirely dominates the horizon. She rises to her hindpaws once again, though not as swift as the knight, and not without aid from her staff of wood. Whether she was rising up in response to Sir Ben's beckon, or the events themselves, is its own uncertainty.

A rush of activity overwhelms the old mouse. The wizard falls in the dirt. A druid rushes past them all, especially the wizard and ranger. Was he tripped? Flowers sprout at accelerated speed. A trumpet sounds -- but not from an instrument. And the castle... the castle opens its doors.

"Is it... is it truly that easy?" she wonders aloud, daring to consider that entry could be gained without any effort.

"Yes -- yes, you all are right." she finally agrees in response to their call to action, nodding her head in just a slight daze. Disbelief, most likely. She puts out the campfire she had made, and steps away from her little camp, ready to abandon its use and move on. "Let's away."

Thanks to her slower reaction time (at least to this particular event), she is not the first in line as the group of mice cross the expanse between gate and door.

"Look at these blooming flowers. They must be affected by the bend of time at a different pace than we are." she notes as they pass the flowers on both sides. "We should be cautious about how time affects us, as well. Though I'm not certain how one would take precautions for--"

She stops herself, looking past the mice who've taken the lead. "What... what kind of beast is that?" Certainly not an animal she's seen in her lifetime.

​

 

[PastelPhoenix]

Artean Bellepetal
Ranger Extraordinaire​

The foyer was grand, and yet unnerving at the same time. Maybe it was just the fact that everything was so large, maybe it was the eerily realistic statutes, or maybe it was just how the wallpaper seemed to move. Either way, Artean began to bumble around the room, taking in all the sights. The first order of business was to look at the most familiar thing in the room, the statues. Peering up at each of the animals, he caught a vague recollection of each.

"So, guys," he started, "and... girls too I guess. I think everyone can see that there's a cat and some kind of bird. I think it may be a parrot or something, only ever seen them from far away. That tapping one... I swear I've seen it in a jungle somewhere, back when I traveled a lot. Name started with an "S", I know that much. Slenth? Soft? Sloth?

"Either way," he continued, just speaking his thoughts aloud, "that tapping is weird. Has to mean something. Can't tell what though. I'm going to get a closer look, see if I can figure it out."

Slowly climbing out of fear of falling (although Billas followed right below in case of an event like that), he eventually made his way to the hand of the strange, tapping creature. Cautiously reaching out, he felt the tapping claw with his bare paw. Instead of smooth stone, it felt more like a real claw of some kind of beast. Stepping back a little, out of fear of triggering something by touching the claw, he took a birds eye view of the room.

"Uhh, well... it feels very real. You guys don't think these are real animals that got, I dunno, turned to stone or something? Ugh, skeeves me out."

"By the way," he added, the other statues in the room catching is eye, "those kind of look like chess pieces. Anyone know how to play? Never learned myself."

 

[Winter]

Yvanna of Whisker Woods

Disturbance in the vicinity snapped her attention away from the wall pictures. The mice she had seen outside the castle finally caught up with her and taking turns to investigate the foyer's interior.

One of them approached the frozen sloth, remarking about the meaning of the tapping. He climbed onto the statue, hesitantly touching it, acting as if it might sprung to life all of a sudden. Ridiculous creature, he was. Yvanna made a note to be wary of that peculiar individual. She turned her gaze back to the wall, then stiffened. Did- did the pictures just move? She swore that there was something off about the images. She could not remember if the pictures were exactly the same, she had been distracted, but the eyes of the mice in the pictures seemed to leer at her, taunting. She walked over to where the peculiar mouse was perched atop the stone sloth.

"...those kind of look like chess pieces. Anyone know how to play? Never learned myself."

"Chess pieces? I have never heard of such a thing."

The druid turned her head, finally speaking up.

"Now, I believe those dancers on the wall might mean something."

She had now realized it. The instance she walked away, the dancers assumed another position. What had changed? She did not understand, this was some arcane spell at work. Perhaps a message was encrypted within the wall itself. Perhaps the positions of the dancers led to something... Or somewhere.


​

 

[Groc]

Sir Ben of Junkheap
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​

Sir Ben cautiously walked through the foyer, his hand on his sword, though he kept it sheathed. The others, clearly of a more analytical mind, began calling out their observations. One of them (Ben chastised himself for not learning their names), upon climbing up to a higher vantage point, pointed out the statues' resemblance to chess pieces, and enquired whether anyone knew the game.

"Actually, I know a thing or two about chess, my good man!" Sir Ben called up to Artean. "My skills may be a little rusty, as I have not played against anyone for a long time, but I still know the basics, at least! In fact, I know more than just the basics, if I may indulge in some light bragging." Realizing he was probably speaking more than he needed to, he decided to act.

"Though I fear these pieces may be a bit larger than I am used to, I shall attempt to solve this puzzle game!" He walked up to a piece, a white rook, and leaned into it, pushing with all his might. But the piece refused to move.

"Vexation!" Sir Ben cursed, inspecting the statue for clues. "There must be some manner of moving it, perhaps if I had a rope and some pulleys... what's this? 'Good Listener'? Whatever could that mean? Am I to merely instruct the piece, rather than physically move it myself? I suppose I could try... Rook! I command you to advance five spaces forward, next to the black knight!"

Too his surprise, the statue obeyed, gliding over the stone floor. The sound of stone grating on stone echoed through the foyer, but oddly there was no damage to the floor itself.

Once the piece stopped moving, Sir Ben looked at the others, grinning excitedly. "A thousand apologies for the noise, comrades! But I believe I am making headway on this puzzle!"

​

 

[Afterglow Ampharos]

"Might you be friendly?" Eleanor inquires, approaching the creature covered in grey skin, heavy-built and standing on all fours. She treats the elephant with caution: though much smaller than a usual specimen, it's still twice the size of a mouse, and an animal unfamiliar to her. "Such a long snout... And look how it moves..." she notes aloud, keeping a safe distance but curiously leaning in nonetheless.

But Eleanor notices she's being left alone with the animal: others are rushing ahead, into the open doors of the castle. She supposes that's a good idea: there's no telling if the doors might close again, and this gray creature may be in their path, but certainly isn't blocking the way. She apologizes to the elephant for cutting this short, then moves past it to join the others indoors.

Music: Restoration

She expected nothing less than tremendous size from the room she walked into, given how gigantic the castle appeared from the outside, but stepping into it herself, expected or not, she truly feels dwarfed. Never before had she been both indoors and yet in such a vast expanse of space. It felt like a yawning-open cave, yet decorated with the fine amenities of the rich. An experience that makes one pause and look around.

The decorator -- though it boggles the mind to even consider someone who could furnish a "home" this large -- seemed to have a fondness for statues, she notices. Three statues of animals, life-size, 32 statues of chess pieces, larger than life.

"Enormous claws on that one. 'Sleuth,' did you say it was? Jungle dweller?" she inquires toward Artean, both of them having taken an interest in the animal statues. She hazards a guess: "The tapping may be part of some mechanism. Perhaps it's some manner of crude timepiece, ticking out the seconds that pass. Remember that this place is tied to time's flow in some way."

She frowns in concern when her fellow mouse decides to scale the stone creature. "Oh, do be careful, won't you Artean?" She watches in concern while he climbs, but the bumblebee that follows him seems to be keeping close watch as well. "Can your insect companion there support your weight, should you lose your footing?"

But he finds his way up just fine, and touches the claw while Eleanor watches, reporting his findings down to the group. "It's... real? A real claw? Are you quite certain." She flips her paw and throws out a nervous laugh. "No, I'm sure it couldn't be something so sinister as animals captured in stone. Why would... Why would all but the claw be transformed? Why would someone claim victims in such a manner?" It sounds like she may be trying to logically explain away a possibility which sounds too frightening for her to confront.

Her attention is turned, thankfully, to the other statues, thank to Artean and Sir Ben. The ones which are much less likely to be formerly living, breathing beings. Well, except perhaps the knights, their open equine mouths a scream of their last-- No, no, let's not go down that road.

Sir Ben makes surprisingly rapid headway with his conundrum, and in no time, the grinding of stone against tile alerts everyone in the room to its movement. Eleanor joins Ben at his side, to watch it move. "Goodness, Sir Ben, what did you do? It obeyed your command?" She looks to and fro at the other chess statues, and where they're placed. "Ah, look, the floor, its tiles are like a chess grid, black and white. This room must serve as a giant game board. And the statues... enchanted, I can only assume?"

Yvanna seems to have her attention occupied by the murals on the wall, perhaps a puzzle like that is more her department. Eleanor leaves her to her focus, following the rook's path and crossing the vast tiled floor to the side where the black pieces stand.

She sets a paw against the black knight that the rook had settled near. "Hm." Turning her head to the knight, she asks, "Sir Ben, do you mind if I try the same? I mean, I'll look quite a fool if my command is met with silence, but."

Leaving that thought unfinished, she turns her head up at the statue. "Black Knight, jump this Rook, and land there ahead of it, to our left," she requests with a point of her digit.

The old mouse stumbles backward and falls on her behind when the horse-head statue rises into the air before her. She's stunned speechless, supporting herself on the floor with her arms and watching the knight ascend slowly into the air until it's high enough to clear the height of the rook. It floats overtop, until it's over the square just beyond, then descends to the floor again with a resounding thump, shaking Eleanor too much for her to stand back up. Finally, the knight piece slides one square to its left, with the same grinding noise that the rook had made just before.

"So it is an enchanted game..." For the amusement of the one who made it, Eleanor wonders?

​

 

[Winter]

Yvanna of Whisker Woods

"Sir Ben, do you mind if I try the same? I mean, I'll look quite a fool if my command is met with silence, but."

Two more had joined them in the foyer, one of them more vocal and chatty than the rest, but they both hovered high on the annoyance scale. Blabber, blabber, blabber, was all these city dwellers could think of doing. Rejecting nature, rejecting tranquility and rejecting peace. What in tarnation had attracted them to this castle? Things were more likely to go awry with their presence. Nature was already upset; they were just throwing logs into the fire.

Deep in her thoughts, Yvanna did not realize that they had managed to make the black-and-white figures move across the monochromatic tiled floor.

"Black Knight, jump this Rook, and land there ahead of it, to our left."

There was a grinding noise, stone against stone, as what looked like a horse statue animated, levitating up and moving over another figure's head, to land on the tile a few spaces away. Thump.

"So it is an enchanted game..." mused the talkative mouse.

Yvanna moved to where the game was being played, wanting to see what would happen next. She was starting to get an inkling of what this "chess" game was all about. Clearly, the two colours meant two opposing sides. But, Yvanna failed to fathom what the catch was.

"How does one attain victory?"

The druid had another question on her tongue, about whether it mattered which side won, but it died as she per-chanced to look at the wall beside them and noticed the murals moving.

Yvanna's eyes widened. In shock. Then revelation.​

 

[moon]

Cronald Ripipip

Cron was amazed by the interior. Not only was it utterly huge, certainly not made for mice of any kind to serve as the main inhabitants, but as the others moved around and explored the facilities and decorations, it became obvious that everything was enchanted. A wide grin nestled itself rather permanently on Cronald's face now. There was magic everywhere here. He put his paw on the wall, watching the silent dancers. Turning away for a moment and then back, he could have sworn that they had moved to look at him.

"Chess, haha!" he chuckled and started walking towards the others on the checkered floor, inspecting the large pieces. "I never found myself bored enough to master the game before. Glad some of you did!"

He ran up to the leftmost door on the bottom floor, and teleported himself up in the air so he could spy through its keyhole. The simple teleportation succeeded, but there was nothing visible through the large keyhole, strangely. Perhaps there was a key in the way. On his way down, falling through the air, he realized that this likely was going to hurt unless he did something about it. He hurriedly ordered a nearby chair cushion to swoop down and soften the impact. The cushion obliged in the nick of time, but subsequently squished him against the wood of the door before hopping back to sit at its original place again. Pulling himself together, Cron supposed that the cushion might have been grumpy from being awoken so abruptly.

Meanwhile, the other mice had begun moving some pieces. Cronald didn't pay much attention, but instead took note that there were at least three more doors in the foyer. Teleporting himself to the other side of them would be a bit too much of a risk without knowing what fate would meet him there. Not to mention his skills were a bit wonky as it were, without his magic staff.

"How to open the doors..." he thought out loud, standing on the red carpet in front of the stairs.​

 

[PastelPhoenix]

Artean Bellepetal
Ranger Extraordinaire

From up on his vantage point Artean could see every detail of the chess pieces moving, which only made them all the more magical to him. These massive constructions were moving without any kind of support! He'd seen very minor magics during his travels, in the vein of fancy light tricks and the occasional spurt of fire, but nothing quite on this scale.

The older mouse seemed to inquire something from him when the first piece began moving. Taking a moment to reconstruct her request, he thought of why someone would turn someone into a statue.

"I'm not entirely sure," he admitted, "but who would build a castle like this anyways? This is far to big for any person, and all these puzzles?"

He continued to watch the chess pieces move, trying to figure out the pattern between each piece. Not that he could name any of them besides the king, but it made him feel a little productive.

"How does one attain victory?" Mused the quiet one who nearly knocked him over earlier.

"Ah, I at least know that," Artean responded, allowing his larger companion to focus on the game. "There's one piece on each side called the "King", and you have to move one of your pieces into the same space as him and protect your own. Each piece means something and moves a specific way, but I don't remember but a few of them."

Looking over at her, he noticed a sudden realization dawn in her eyes. She might have noticed something with the wallpaper. Deciding to focus his efforts there instead of just sitting atop a statue making observations, he called out to her bellow.

"Did you notice something with that design? I may not be much help, but my parents did make me take a few dance classes. I might be able to lend my assistance with it."