+ 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

[mypartnerintime]

[Max leaves the pressure pad behind and crawls back to the first room, where the panel as graciously remained open. She follows Cisco out into the grassy area, stopping short at the river and eyeing it with some dislike.]

Uhh. Can- can mice swim? No way I'm swimming across that.

[Even the mild current would drag her and her little legs downstream to who knows where.]

[thisismadfreaky]

Mice can swim. [He sounds confident in that fact, at least, if not the next part of his words.] But I don't know how far and-- looks kind of far for tiny mouse legs anyway.

[A+ Comforting tactics, there, Cisco. Good job.] I'll make a bridge or something. There's enough trees around.. it just...might take awhile. [Which he's totally not looking foward to, but they won't get out of here otherwise, right?

So with that, he sets to work. And despite having his, uh, human consciousness, he seems to also have all the awareness of his animal counterpart and he sets to work in a way that seems more like muscle memory than active choice-making.

And he's not wrong-- it takes awhile, but eventually he manages to get enough sticks and pieces of wood and whatever else he could find and stick together with mud from the river and there's something like a bridge for them to cross now.] All right, let's get outta here.

[mypartnerintime]

[Max has no doubt that the river will sweep her and her 'tiny mouse legs' away, hands down. The fact that Cisco goes and puts it into words doesn't actually make her feel any worse.

She can't decide if that's a good or bad thing, overall.

She follows Cisco closely as he sets to work, watching him gather the materials with an animal sort of deftness and set it all together in an impressive way. As she follows him around she tries to think of a way to maker herself useful- and comes up with nothing. She ends up trying to make a helpful comment here and there, which later on she realizes were probably not all that helpful.

Finally she pauses next to the finished bridge and admires his handiwork.] That's... pretty rad. Never thought I'd get to see a beaver build one.

[thisismadfreaky]

[All things considered, the thing is pretty solid and structurally sound, if he does say so himself. He can't help but be a little proud of it in the aftermath of all the work that went into it.

He turns to Max and if a beaver can look hopeful, this one is right now.] Ready to get outta here?

[mypartnerintime]

[A hopeful beaver. Max wishes, not for the first time, that she had her camera. No selfies right now, though!

She nods, rather hesitant, and eyes the bridge. A thought occurs to her and she turns to him, squeaking speaking.]

Is... this your first puzzle? During this event?

[thisismadfreaky]

Oh, uh-- yeah. [He cocks his head slightly to the side.] Did you do another one before this?

[mypartnerintime]

Two. Yeah. [She seems a little shifty- or that might just be a normal mouse thing.] They... weren't great. If we cross this, who knows where we'll end up...

[thisismadfreaky]

That bad, huh? [He glances across the way, beyond the bridge, but he can't see anything that looks threatening in the least. He looks back at his tiny companion.] But we can't just stay here forever, right?

l;kajfajs I forgot the mouse icon!

[mypartnerintime]

[She looks around.] I mean, I guess not, but it looks awfully nice and quiet...

[She still hesitates at the foot of the bridge.]

The other puzzles were really that bad. I'm just... warning you.

no worriesss <3

[thisismadfreaky]

Maybe it's the end. [A beat.] at least for you? I'm guessing if you did others, I have another one to do. [No way does he think he's getting out easy.]

[mypartnerintime]

[She sighs- insofar as mice can sigh- and finally puts one little paw on the bridge. In all honesty she wants to stay, despite being much shorter and furrier than normal. But who knows how long it'll stay that way? Wonderland will probably force all of them to play its game.

But what he says does perk her up a bit. Maybe it is the end.]

Good luck, uhh, Cisco, right? Thanks for the bridge. It was really cool to watch you make it.

[thisismadfreaky]

[If beavers can smile, Cisco definitely did just then.] Thanks, Max. I guess I'll see you around? [Although, it belatedly occurs to him he wouldn't even know her, because he'd met her as a mouse...]

[mypartnerintime]

Sure.

[She strugles a little to get on the bridge, then tentatively takes a few steps, still mildly uneasy at the prospect of another challenge ahead.]

See you on the flip side.

[She'll probably end up looking for a brown-haired, rather large, beaver-looking like guy!]