+ Your imagination can't hurt you! +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: YOU!
Where: The Mindscape
When: starting November 11th
Rating: may be up to R for character deaths
Summary: Navigate challenges to learn valuable lessons about nonviolence, cooperation, and self-sacrifice! Release your inner animal! Read more about the event here, and on the bulletin board.
The Story:




"If you know yourself, you have nothing to fear."
"Working together is the only way."
"Deaths are a necessary part of life, but not all deaths are necessary."
"The needs of the many outweigh the life of just one."

Comments

[adaptiveimmunities]

Me either--though I haven't been here as long, so I guess my experience on that is pretty limited.

[He's not exactly thrilled to not see George, though. It's not like they've been completely inseparable since their arrival--they've never really been glued at the hip, and it's not any different in Wonderland. But typically they are together a lot, and they've definitely been together for all of the events so far. There's a small part of him that's internally screaming at the idea that she might just be gone, back home to what's waiting for her there, but he locks those thoughts away. He can deal with that later--if he has to. For now, he and glitter-Mabel have a weird creepy room to deal with.]

You seeing a way out of here?

[powerofmabel]

Uhhhh... [she glances around the room and spots a large metal at the far end.] Boom! There it is. [and bold and lacking in self-preservation that she is, she bounds over to it, expecting it to be an automated door. once she gets in front of it, however... it does not open.]

...Maybe it needs a password.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Or a blood test. [Shaun steps up beside her, looking for the usual blood test panel, and finding it conspicuously absent.] Huh. [He waves his hand at the door, hoping it might activate a motion sensor. No dice.]

Open sesame?

[powerofmabel]

[There's a gray metal box in the corner that Mabel spots with her amazing Attention Deficit skills and she rushes over to it so she can push it in front of the door and climb up on it.]

Maybe it's got a sensor and we need to be taller. [she leaps up waving her hands in front of the door.] Hey! We're here! Open up!

[adaptiveimmunities]

[That... doesn't make much sense, but he lets her jump up and down a couple of times before clearing his throat.]

Uh. I don't think that's working. There's a button over there, though. [He nodes toward it.] Maybe that will open the door?

[powerofmabel]

[Mabel follows his nodding to the button on the high ledge.] We're gonna need a lot of boxes to get up there...

[she starts walking around the room, looking for more. she's a very determined little girl.]

[adaptiveimmunities]

...I could try to give you a boost?

[She doesn't look that heavy, and if he stands on the box, and then boosts her up? That could work, right?]

[powerofmabel]

[my Portal-playing heart is so mad at them right now.

Mabel snaps her fingers.] That's a great idea!

[and she's back to shoving the box around, this time up against the high ledge.] Good thing I've been climbing- and falling out of- trees since I was four. [she does finger guns. because of course she does.] This'll be a cinch.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Mine too. FIND A PORTAL GUN. THINGS WILL BE SO MUCH MORE AWESOME.

He climbs up onto the box and glances over at her, grinning a little and raising an eyebrow.]

So does this make me the tree?

[powerofmabel]

You betacha.

[with his help, she's able to reach the edge of the ledge and pull herself up.] We're doing great.

[and she takes the button at a running leap. the doors open.] We did it!

[but once she steps off the button, the doors close again.] ...Huh.

[she tentatively steps on and off the button a few times.] ...Well, this stinks.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun frowns. Well, this is awkward. He glances down at the box. Maybe he can pass it up to her? Or is the ledge too high? Well, it's worth a try.

He jumps off the box, then picks it up and stretches as tall as he can.]

Can you reach? Maybe this thing is heavy enough to hold the button down.

[powerofmabel]

[Mabel leans down trying to grab it, but without Shaun on the box, her fingers don't even brush against it.] Ugh. Darn. Heck. Poop. [she faceplants on the ledge.]

Maybe one of us has gotta stay behind...

[adaptiveimmunities]

The hell with that. Can you see anything else from up there that we can use to get this thing up there?

[powerofmabel]

Ummm... [she looks around carefully, growing more despondent as she realizes there's nothing, though her attention keeps drifting to the dripping faucet and it's weird blue paint substance.

it's definitely worth blaming all her problems on it.]

Maybe I could think if it weren't for that stupid leaky faucet.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun glances over at it, frowning.]

So, if this were a puzzle game, the blue paint would do something. Do you think this is a puzzle game? I mean, everything else has been, right?

[powerofmabel]

[she rolls over on her back.] I... guess. It's been about figuring out what the stupid room wants, too. Maybe it wants a new paintjob!

[adaptiveimmunities]

Can we do that? I think I want to do that now. [He approaches the dripping blue goo and reaches out to catch some in his hands. It bounces kind of impressively, actually, and he tosses some toward a wall.] ...This stuff is weird.

[powerofmabel]

[since Mabel can't get down on her own, she settles for sitting on the edge of the ledge and observing.] Oh em gee. Did that just bounce? Put it on your shoes! Put it on your shoes!

[she isn't even thinking of a plan just yet. she just wants him to do it.]

[adaptiveimmunities]

[There's a possibility that Shaun shouldn't take advice on how to proceed form twelve year olds, but in this case he agrees wholeheartedly. He sticks each foot in turn into the blue goo, until they are both well coated.

And then he jumps, and holy shit it is amazing.]

Oh my god this was the best idea ever.

[powerofmabel]

[Mabel shrieks in delight, the puzzle forgotten as she kicks her legs back and forth on the ledge.] It makes the whole world a bouncy castle. Come get me down from here. I want in on this.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[He bounces over, not even considering the actual implications of the bouncy goo yet. He climbs back up onto the box and reaches up to help Mabel down again.]

You have to try this it is fantastic.

[powerofmabel]

[as soon as she's scrambled back onto the ground, Mabel runs over to the blue paint and proceeds to stand under the leaking faucet until she's covered in it. at which point, she belly flops onto the ground and bounces a good five feet up twisting in midair so she can land on her feet.]

This is amazing... and a little bit painful. [she does not care.]

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun grins at her.] Maybe. But so worth it. Also, I think I might have figured out how to solve this thing, but what do you say we treat this whole room like a bouncy house for a little longer?

[powerofmabel]

[she's still bouncing around like a rabbit on speed.] Definitely. We're just gonna get stuck in another room with another dumb puzzle after this, so I'm gonna take the fun where I can get it.

[adaptiveimmunities]

You and me both.

[And he joins her in bouncing around the room like it's an especially solid bouncy house.]