revenance_rpg | What's this, what's this?

"Then we should proceed to the library next," Celestia said, tucking her wings back in better fit through the door as she led the way. She was still quite suspicious of how unassailed they had been thus far, and had not relaxed her guard despite outward appearances.

York scooped up the book and headed after Celestia. It looked like they'd be able to make it through this without tangling with any annoying dream eaters. There'd been enough outside, anyway. "What's the point of a puzzle like this anyway? I know it's all dream logic here, but it's still weird."

"You know... I don't really know." That was mostly true. Sora really didn't know why the puzzle was there. He knew that Roxas had had to solve a small puzzle to find the computer room and the halls and pod room beyond that, but that had been in a digital copy of the world and the clue he'd found in the white room had probably been left there by Namine. But here in dreams, they had a different puzzle and no such help in working it out. Not to mention the mixing of dream logic and video game logic.

Further discussion would have to wait as their luck with Nightmare encounters ran out. On the mezzanine, about halfway around to the library, they ran into their first battle since entering the mansion. If Sora had known of York's thoughts on their luck, he might have scolded him for jinxing them. Admittedly, he'd appreciated the lack of combat himself. It wasn't a large party, but being mostly Toximanders made up for the lack of numbers a little bit. What with the specialties in poison and confusion and all...

"Watch out!" Celestia reared onto her hind legs, flaring her wings instinctively to form a barrier between the Toximanders and her comrades. She meant no offense to their capability by it; her first response to danger was to protect.

Her second response was to gather magic around her horn, then shape it into a brilliant ray of sunlight that slashed towards one of the Toximanders.

York pulled out his gun and shifted to the side; he couldn't get a clear shot past Celestia like this, and from what he'd seen, the toximanders could be pretty nasty in a fight. He knelt down so he could get a look, at least. "Pull back a bit; I can get them from a distance too." If they didn't disappear into the floorboards.

Toximanders liked disappearing into the floorboards. Especially when it made for perfect opportunities to attack while other Nightmare types drew the attention of their opponents. There were a couple of Necho Cats and Jestabockies in the party as well. But mostly, there were Toximanders. At least the one Celestia had aimed for had been a little slow in sinking into the floor.

Sora had ranged attacks at his disposal too, but was in the same boat as York with being unable to get a clear shot past Celestia. He preferred getting a little more up close and personal when he could anyway, though that wasn't all that easy either unless he wanted to run along the railing. He was certainly agile enough to do that, but he doubted doing so with Nightmares gunning for him was a good idea. ~~It had certainly been a bad idea in the waking world with a party of Nobodies...~~ His Spirits were not so hung up on strategy, however. Nor were they bothered about there being a pony in the way. Jelly Bean simply ran under Celestia's outstretched wing and Bruce flew around.

Exasperated, Sora followed Jelly Bean's lead, though he had to duck slightly to clear the wing. At the least the Necho Cats couldn't evade them quite as easily at the Toximanders. The Jestabockies could disguise themselves as items and now he realized there was an edit he needed to make to his guide. Jestabockies were immune to attack when they were disguised. Crap. And the cats tended to run away, not so much to escape as to attack from a distance with magic. Also crap. Bruce and Jelly Bean chased the cats down the stairs. Sora let them go and focused on the enemies still on the mezzanine, trying to draw the Toxmanders' attention. Maybe he could provide an opportunity for York and Luna to catch at least some of them off guard, though that did assume that York even had a melee weapon on him...

Mildly irritated at herself for her reaction, though she knew perfectly well she could have done nothing else, Celestia beat those outstretched wings, lifting into the air for a better vantage point on the fight -- and protection from the floor-darting Toximanders.

She kept to the same attack pattern, slashing sunbeams at every Nightmare she saw with quiet determination. For now she wasn't going to vary her pattern, both because she didn't want to trip up her companions any further, and because her magic attacks were the most direct and effective way of attacking.

York sighed and headed in after Sora; he wasn't equipped for close combat but he wasn't going to shoot things when his allies were doing close range. At least Sparky and Max were sticking by his side; punching a necho cat to death was easier if you had your dream eaters to help you out. The nice thing about his companions was that they were plowing through the dream eaters with not too much effort; they were already most of the way to the library, even with the crowd that had been in the way.

Sora rather appreciated York's decision to forego shooting things with allies in the line of fire. Magic could made to spare the caster's allies if they had to be in its way, but guns could do no such thing for a shooter.

In any case, he never worried about whether or not they could clear the Nightmares out, only how long it might take. It really didn't take long. However, Toximanders were, well, toxic and he didn't get through the battle without getting poisoned. At least he had the means to heal it, for himself and for anyone else if need be.

"Ugh. Did anyone else get poisoned?"

And though he'd been thinking of it earlier, the fact that Jestabockies could disguise themselves as items and hide among the spoils if they so chose had slipped his mind by the time the battle was over...

Clearly, the answer was enchanted guns.

"I'm all right. Their hiding defense is very effective, though," Celestia said, dropping back down to the ground. She took note of Sora's weapon, comparing it to the others she'd seen since coming here, but now wasn't the time to mention it. "You're both skilled at combat; they will have to muster a more dangerous force than the one we just fought, I think, to endanger us."

Enchanted guns would be something to look into later, if someone mentioned the concept, because York would love to not have to worry so much about friendly fire. "I'm fine too, but Sparky looks like he needs a boost." He gave the hebby repp a potion to keep his energy up at least, but it looked like one of the toximanders had gotten to him.

He nodded to Celestia. "We're all pretty solid in combat; it's nice to work with a good team. Let's get healed up and into the library so we can finish this puzzle off."

If enchanted swords, bows, axes, etc. could exist, so could enchanted guns. Sora had hoped he might be the only one quite so unlucky with the poison, but he hadn't really expected to be. At least healing it was fairly. Esuna was a general purpose spell. Sora had heard of specialized spells for different ailments and he supposed that made a certain amount of sense, but he had yet to learn any of them. As it was, he'd learned Esuna very recently, but it hadn't failed to be useful. Like now. It was especially helpful that it could be cast on more than one person or Spirit as needed.

They had been a little disorganized, but that could be expected when still getting used to working with someone. All things considered, it had gone rather well. And they'd somehow gotten closer to the library in the course of the fight. "Okay. It's right through here."

"We need to have a long talk about your battle performance," Celestia said -- to her own Komory Bat, which was only just now peeking its way out of her eternally flowing mane. Her horn continued to glow with what was not precisely a spell of healing, but one that brought warmth and energy like standing in the spring sun. She stepped into the library, glancing quickly around for further trouble.

This is a wide open room, distinguishable as a library only by the bookshelves that line the walls, filled to the brim with books and, in one corner, a golden vase. In the center of the room, there is a small, rectangular table with a strange symbol drawn on its surface in chalk. The symbol looks to be incomplete, however.

York headed inside after Celestia, keeping an eye on Sparky. The dream eater seemed to be doing better; scouting ahead, actually. No uninvited guests seemed to be coming out of the woodwork. "Maybe your bat figures that you've got a handle on the combat," he suggested to Celestia.

York drifted over to the shelves to search them for a gap; he didn't really take much note of the symbol on the table. That could definitely be part of the puzzle too, but he wanted to see if he could get the chime to sound with the book first.

"He might just need a little time."

This was the first time Sora was seeing the library with its floor intact. As such, he was looking around and in that looking around, he spotted the vase. He also noted the symbol on the table, but he still wasn't sure what they needed to fill in the empty circle. Perhaps that clue would come from solving the other puzzle? "Well, it's probably a safe bet that vase belongs in the foyer."

As certain as he was that they needed the vase, Sora took a closer look at the table first. He really felt like he should know what belonged in that circle. Roxas probably did know, but there was no way in hell they were going to get him into the mansion to look at it.

"I agree with you," Celestia said, adding the vase to their inventory by the simple expedient of lifting it with her magic.

As for the symbol... recalling the previous one they had seen, Celestia assessed this one for parallels.

One of the circles in the symbol was empty. It looked as if it needed something to be complete.

York set the book into an empty space on the shelf. "There we go." He glanced around; nodding to Celestia as she picked up the vase. York walked over to check out the symbol. "What could go there, Sora? We could make guesses."

The chime sounded again and the book glowed a golden color. The chime didn't seem to be coming from any particular direction.

"I don't know." And he really didn't, but that was frustrating. "I know who might know, but he's not going to come anywhere near here."

Sora wasn't surprised in the least that returning the book had done something. The question remained as to what it did do, though. It seemed pretty likely that they'd get a clue when they went to return the vase and fetch the broken dishes to return to the dining room.

"Let us return all the objects properly then," Celestia said, her thoughts having gone on much the same path. She took herself to the door, vase in tow. "I suspect whatever we need to complete this drawing will become obvious when we have fulfilled the conditions for making it appear."

"Here's hoping," York said. He followed Celesita out, frowning. He'd definitely have to see about a weapon that could be selective; he was used to being in firefights, but especially with the dream eaters, the chances of hitting friends were more likely. "Everybody healed up? Just in case we run into some more friends out here."

"Back to the foyer then." Sora followed along, giving the room one more look. He was pretty sure they would be returning to it once they'd solved the puzzle since he knew there were more rooms hidden beneath it. He wondered if the unicorn statue on the one shelf was meant as a clue, given that it was staring rather intently at the floor.

As to being healed up, Sora was pretty sure everyone was fine unless maybe he should have asked about other things besides the poison. "I'm good. And the Spirits all look okay."

Celestia had sustained no injury; in fact, her continuing experience in the dream world convinced her more each day that its inhabitants, both friendly and hostile, generally thought two-dimensionally. Which was no insult, only perhaps a little sad that they had so little access to flight.

"Are more likely to appear?" she said, already seeking the proper home for the vase.

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