this is Salem, a land filled with magic and maladies. It is a place where witches and their elemental familiars gather, a home to legend and
lore that predates time itself. Yet of all the wicked and wonderful stories the past can tell us of, the most magical are the ones yet to happen.
This is Salem - this is the start of your very own journey. Welcome to starfall
Starfall is an animaga witch roleplay set in mostly modern times. Members play as witches in a world plagued by monsters, where the only safe spots are walled cities. Starfall strives to be a character-driven roleplay with expansive lore and a highly interactive plotline. We want to allow members to
create and look back on a magical journey, and mold the site and its plot as their characters grow.
Post by percival grayreme on Apr 30, 2017 6:12:47 GMT
[attr="class","Morning"]
[attr="class","mff"]
[attr="class","scarlett"]Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
[attr="class","windyscarlett"]
The cleaning part is easy enough. It's the maze that Percy is worried about. Can't they just deactivate the traps inside? That would make the job a lot easier. He contacts the requester for that matter, and they very cleverly answered with,
'We are terribly sorry about the hardship cleaning the maze would cause you. The maze is inherited. Unfortunately, the information regarding the traps are not passed down the generation. We have no way of knowing how the traps inside works, unless we hire a witch specializing in mech magic to discover. However, we all have experienced the traps, so we are sure that it is nothing life-threatening. Best of luck, mage!'
Percy sighs after he finishes reading the letter. He figures as much. He just hopes there is water around so he could call Seraph in case something happens to him, or to his partner for that matter.
For the day Percy dons a pastel rainbow-dyed sando, faded blue jeans and sneakers. He figures out things are to be dirty today, so he picks out clothes that would camouflage the dirt. Seraph gently reminded him to bring a change of clothes, so he wouldn't go home greasy and dirty.
Eight in the morning, he is already inside the House of Khione. He is informed that he's the first of the two takers to arrive, and is immediately ushered to the maze. Percy marvels at the structure. At the briefing, he is told that the walls of the maze stand seven feet tall, covered in moss, which is enchanted so that it would not smear. It has several dead ends, with three entrances. There is a huge fountain in the middle, spewing water ten feet high.
That is good, Percy notes. It has water, and at the same time is a landmark.
"Well," the man says, which snaps Percy back to reality. The Leviathan looks at him, tilting his head. "You better get started," he says, to which Percy is quick to oppose.
"How about my partner?"
"We'll send her in shortly. It's a great maze, you should start early. You start at this entrance. She will start at the second entrance." With that, the man leaves. Percy is left standing there, holding a bucket full of cleaning supplies in one hand and a broom and dust pan in another hand.
"Well," Percy muses, starting towards the maze. He takes a deep breath, and shouts, "Let's go!" He hopes his voice is loud enough for his partner to hear. He grins in excitement as he steps inside the green maze.
Not even three minutes in and Ling's already cursing the Khiones for their stupid maze and their maze stupid traps.
Dangling upside down from her ankle for the second time already, the young runescripter takes a moment to glare at the world and silently fume, heedless of the mild dizziness caused by the blood rushing to her head. When the mission had warned about traps, she hadn't thought they would be like this. Nor, she admits to herself, did she expect for herself to blunder into them so easily.
See, this is why she's less of a stealth person and more of a 'blow stuff up' person.
Unfortunately, she still has a mission to complete and a partner she has no clue where he is (she's been assured he'd already entered the maze, but said maze is big and complicated enough that 'in the maze' is of no help at all). Muttering uncomplimentary thoughts under her breath, Ling focuses her thoughts enough to use a wingardium leviosa to levitate a pair of sheers to her hand, whereupon she whacks at the rope entrapping her until it gives way.
Of course, this leads to her all but falling on her head, though thankfully not from too high up. Brilliant. Glowering, Ling snatches up her bucket of cleaning supplies and stalks on ahead, taking her frustration out on the overgrown tangle of vines and the dirt piled up in the corners. Valkea even deigns to manifest, materialising in a flash of sleek white fur and casual poise, graceful in all the ways Ling is not as he accompanies her on silent feet.
With her fervent desire not to be caught in a damnable upside down trap again, Ling manages to disable the next two she comes across, taking vicious satisfaction in the way they spring to life grasping at nothing but thin air. "Take that," she mutters with uncharacteristic vindication.
And then, it seems the universe heard her and needed to balance out the scales again. The very next step she takes, the ground buckles underneath her feet and sends her tumbling down into a hole just deep enough that she can't haul herself out. Ling lets out a cry of utter frustration as she whacks her head against the wall, bemoaning her situation. Just when she'd learnt to recognise the upside down road trap-!
Valkea is, of course, safe and sound and completely unruffled as he sits at the edge of the hole, peering down at her with amusement echoing down their mental link. "Shut up," Ling tells him, pouting as the amused feeling only strengthens. "You're my familiar, aren't you supposed to be on my side?" Sorry for the wait!
Post by percival grayreme on May 4, 2017 6:30:53 GMT
[attr="class","Morning"]
[attr="class","mff"]
[attr="class","scarlett"]Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
[attr="class","windyscarlett"]
That is the second vine trap, Percy thinks, as a clump of vines sprouted from the walls and grasps whatever it could reach. In this particular, it's Percy's right arm. The vine tries to retract and pull Percy with it, but he does not budge. Instead, he slowly kneels and picks up a grass cutter. After freeing himself, Percy backs away.
When everything is quiet, Percy closes again on the vine careful not to reach its detection range. He fails, though, and out sprouts the vine once again. This time, Percy sidesteps and grabs it. The vine wiggles, and Percy pulls it until it reaches maximum length. There Percy sees the dirt and moss, and proceeds to wipe it off.
That's about five traps cleaned, Percy notes triumphantly. He planned to take this slow and easy. Note the past tense, because Percy thought of that about a minute ago. The next minute he hears a scream, faint in the distance but definitely a scream, and then he is sprinting towards the sound. His natural instinct to help kicks in. He does not know exactly where he is going. Traps sprung, and Percy manages to dodge those he had already seen. The other half, however, puts him in great peril. He trips because of a wire in the way, and from the earth springs a bed of needles.
Percy honestly though it'd be his end. Death by hundreds of needles piercing his body. However, once his back touches the needles, they morphed into harmless but prickly shoots of grass which gives Percy an unwarranted itch. He dusts himself off and when he rose, he's in the middle of the maze, besides the fountain, still with no clue where he is going. As if on cue, Seraph appears, floating on the fountain.
"Hey! Are you hurt? Where are you?!" he yells, beginning to move again. He turns to Seraph, and soon enough Seraph is flapping awkwardly in the air, searching for the person. Percy tries to follow Seraph, and he swears he sees something before falling onto a hole in the ground.
"This is uncalled for!" he complains to the heavens. He is tall enough that he can still see... perhaps another hole... in which a creature is peering into. "Sorry!" he calls to the empty air again. "Looks like I'll be back in action once I get out of this hole..."
"Argh!" Ling pulls at her hair in frustration as she jumps up along the walls and yet again fails to touch even the edge of the hole. "This is so stupid!" she complains at her familiar. Valkea, of course, just watches her with amused eyes as if she were his very own personalised entertainment act - which she is, basically. Jumping up again, failing again, Ling pouts as she basically resigns herself to waiting until someone comes along to help.
She doesn't have to wait long for signs of her (probably) partner.
"Hey!" she hears, an echo distorted by distance and indistinct enough that she can't make out any of the following words. It's definitely a person though - perhaps he heard her scream? or is looking for her - so she musters up the loudest voice she has and yells back, "I'm over here! I'm kinda stuck in a hole, help me please?"
She's pretty loud if she does say so herself. Valkea huffs in agreement. I'm sorry for the wait! I've had exams OTL (also apologies for the short post)
Post by percival grayreme on May 11, 2017 3:34:50 GMT
[attr="class","Morning"]
[attr="class","mff"]
[attr="class","scarlett"]Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
[attr="class","windyscarlett"]
Percy takes deep breaths, calming himself down. Adrenaline is fading, which is good, because he would now be able to assess the situation at hand with his brain and not with a hormone. Seraph lands near him, floating on a small blob of water. His familiar regards him, and Percy manages an "it's-okay'everything-is-fine" smile. It's not very convincing though.
His ears perk when he hears a woman's voice. He can't pinpoint which direction it is, but Seraph does. "Seraph, I'm counting on you!" Percy says, pride for the mute swan blossoming in his chest. Seraph clicks and clacks, and Percy nods.
"All right, all right." He surveys his surroundings. It would not be possible to get out of this dungeon just by jumping. There are hardly any crevice to cling onto. It's decided. From his pocket, Percy takes out the flattened scroll of Winglace Blast. He focuses, and within a minute of concentration, a surge of energy flows through him, and he uses that superhuman strength to get out of that hole. He lands safely, then freezes as the scroll's spell fades.
Seraph begins to move, and being in the air, floating in a blob, she does not trigger any traps. She stops at the end of the wing, and from what Percy could see from this distance, there is another dungeon. Seraph peers into the hole, and then back to Percy.
It's a slightly different story for Percy though. He can't fall into any more dungeon, his mana would be sapped in no time. He threads carefully, slowly, till he reaches the end safely. He regards the creature, and then peers into the hole. Sure enough, there is a small woman in it, with black hair and frustrated face.
Percy smiles at her and gives a friendly wave. "Heya," he greets. "Let's get you out of there, is that okay?" He crouches and extends his arm. "This is a pretty deep hole, though. Hold on tight."
líng lù-xī , 327 words, hear me out!!! what if percy loses balance and falls in the hole, too? then he can use winglace blast and get her out bridal style!!! omg mission info here!
There's no immediate answer. Ling's voice echoes into the void, reverberates, dissipates into the air as a faded phantom of itself, just a lonely sound alone in a too-vast space. That's how she perceives it as anyway. It's... kind of disheartening, and she briefly entertains the notion of her mind having made up the sound of another's voice- but then she remembers that Val had heard it too, and so dismisses that notion out of hand.
Still, that doesn't help her one bit with getting out of the accursed hole.
Just as she's about to attempt shouting to a hopefully-not-imaginary partner again, there's the sound of wings, some kind of white bird barely visible in her limited view. 'Val?' she mentally prods at her familiar, curiosity echoing across from her end of their bond. Valkea, in turn, sends back snatches of wariness and caution before replying with a more concrete, 'it's a swan. I think it's a familiar.'
'It's leaving,' he notes after another heartbeat. 'Perhaps it has gone to retrieve its partner.'
"We can only hope," Ling mutters, out loud this time. She glowers at the hole walls and wills for whoever it is to arrive faster. Being stuck in a hole, surprise surprise, is in fact really boring, and she'll probably start tracing experimental runes into the walls if she's stuck down here for any longer.
Fortunately for her (and probably the trap walls too), a guy pops into her worldview, brown-haired and a few years older, and greets her with a smile and a friendly wave. "Oh thank god," she exclaims in relief, too elated to even care about manners or introductions or the like. "Thank you so much," she says as she reaches for his hand. YES! to that plot ouo
Post by percival grayreme on May 15, 2017 7:10:37 GMT
[attr="class","Morning"]
[attr="class","mff"]
[attr="class","scarlett"]Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
[attr="class","windyscarlett"]
Percy might have taken the situation too easily. He grasps the girl's arm, just above her wrist, and heaves. He lifts her up for about a foot or two, and then is stuck. It's surprisingly difficult to carry the weight of a young girl in just one arm... Beads of sweat begin to travel down Percy's face, to his neck, collarbones, soaking his shirt. In his mind, he hears Seraph counter his thoughts. He ignores his familiar.
Seraph sighs, disappointed with her master. She watches from above as the girl's weight pulls Percy in the hole with her. "Oh sh--" Percy mumbles when he realizes he lost his balance. All Percy can do is to maneuver himself so he does not hit the earth face-first.
"I hate this maze," Percy groans, getting up. He scratches his neck, dusting it off momentarily as he spoke to the woman. "God I'm sorry that is so sloppy. I hope I did not hurt you or anything?"
Percy knows he is not pleasing to the eyes now. He is sweating, breathing heavy, covered in specks of dust and mud, with occasional blades of grass sticking out of his shirt. Yet he musters his most radiant smile to the girl. "I'm Percy, by the way, Percival Grayreme. This is quite an unusual meeting, but hey, at least we saw each other. How long have you been waiting here?"
There he goes again in the influx of questions, one after the other. If the girl would answer, he would smile and nod along, at the same time think of how could the two of them get out of this hell. Even now, it seems that the scroll is the only way to get out.
"I also fell into a hole like this, that's why I took soooo long. I got out by casting a scroll called Winglace Blast. It's a scroll that grants abnormal strength for about four seconds or so. I can use it again... and maybe..." he glances at the girl, hoping she gets what he would say next. He wipes his palm dry on his pants and offers it to the girl with a hopeful smile.
He grasps her wrist and she, in turn, holds on tightly; there's a feeling of pure, glorious relief as her feet leave the ground and they begin to rise from the gaping maw of the hole. Finally, she thinks, finally she's escaping this horribly embarrassing situation.
Of course she has to jinx it.
A moment after they leave the ground, around two feet in the air, the guy... stalls. They rise no further, simply hovering there, suspended; Ling feels him begin to tremble from the exertion, she sees the sweat glistening on his brow and beading on his skin. Oh no, she thinks, the horrible cold of sinking apprehension seeping into the pits of her stomach. This... is not going to end well.
As if catalysed by her thoughts, her would-be saviour loses his fight against gravity and sends them both tumbling back towards the earth, back into the yawning mouth of the pit. "Ow," Ling says, deadpan, as she just lies there for a moment, once again mentally cursing the maze and its stupid, stupid traps. Her partner - she's assuming he's her partner for this mission anyway - voices much the same thought.
Ling nods in vehement concordance. "Agreed," she says, wincing as she forces herself to get up. Seriously, her poor back. "It's okay, I'm alright, it was just the fall."
They're both covered head to toe in dust and grime, stains smeared on their clothes and hair dishevelled, but apparently that doesn't stop her partner from adhering to social niceties and good manners. He introduces himself, then smiles, and oh god she's suddenly noticing the way light filters through his eyes, and his pretty, pretty features. Heat begins to creep across the slant of her cheeks, the bridge of her nose, and her heartbeat is suddenly loud in her ears.
"N-nice to meet you Percy, I'm Ling," she says, tripping over her words slightly. What is happening to her? "Uh, not that long actually. You came pretty fast." And speaking of pretty...
She shoves the persistent thought aside along with the observation that, underneath all the dirt, Percy is really cute, and instead attempts to focus on his words. Winglace Blast? Sounds useful, and her mind briefly wonders if she could recreate such an effect with a runic array. Wait no, back to present, focus. It... honestly isn't that hard to snap fully back to reality as Percy offers her his hand, another smile playing on his lips.
Her blush deepens, her heart beating a frantic cadence she hasn't felt before outside of high adrenaline situations. "Sounds- sounds like the best option we have," she says, attempting to sound normal and unaffected by this phenomenon of the heart. Ling takes his hand, offers him a shy but brilliant smile to answer his own, and attempts not to think too hard about, well, everything.it's ok, take your time! hope this is ok : )
Post by percival grayreme on May 17, 2017 15:32:09 GMT
[attr="class","Morning"]
[attr="class","mff"]
[attr="class","scarlett"]Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
[attr="class","windyscarlett"]
Percy sighs, relieved. "You're too kind to me, Ms. Ling. I'm glad you're all right." The Leviathan's natural sweet words come pouring out of his mouth. He notices the blush on the woman, and while he does wonder what causes it, he does not think about it too much. He's always doing that in his nineteen years.
"Great!" Percy exclaims, grasping Ling's hand firmly. His expression morphs into a serious one as he looks into Ling's pretty crimson eyes. "Just give me a while to cast the scroll. Though I guarantee you're safe with me, hold on tight still."
He opts to dust himself off first, trying to clean as much as he can. After all, he is going to hold a girl. He does not do anything much with all the cleaning, but he does ruffle his hair and take a deep breath before pulling Ling closer and putting her arms around his neck. He puts his arm on her waist. The position is meant to make it easier for Percy to carry woman on his arms. At such close proximity, Percy looks down at Ling and winks at her. "Here goes nothing."
Due to exhaustion, instead of a minute, Percy takes a full two minutes to cast Winglace Blast. His heart is calm as he concentrates on directing the flow of mana to him. His breathing is even, his eyes shut closed. He does wonder how is Ling reacting to all of these... yet he cannot pay attention to the girl anymore than he can. Instinctively he pulls Ling closer to his body as two minutes approach.
When it does, Percy feels an abnormal amount of strength coursing through his body. He feels weightless, and he knows its time. Percy scoops up the woman, tucking her safely in his arms, feeling none of her weight, then folds his knees and makes a super jump out of that hole. The whole act lasts for three seconds, but it is enough.
As strength leaves him, Percy sets the woman down with his last bit of control. Then he falls on his butt, drained. He breathes with difficulty, sweat starts to roll off his skin, and his eyes droop. Yet through all that he manages to glance at Ling and gives her a thumbs up. "Yay, we're out! At last! But, ah, I've been asking time too much today... but let's rest for a minute before continuing?"
"N-not at all!" she bursts out in response to his words, then shrinks back with a deep red to her cheeks as she realises the vehemence with which she'd spoken and her instinctive reactions. Gods above, why does he have to be both so cute and so nice? "Uh, just Ling is fine," she hastily adds to cover up her embarrassing response.
Her breath catches in her throat as Percy meets her eyes before pulling her close to his side, wrapping her arms around him and his around hers. This close, she can feel the fine threads of his hair tickle softly against her cheek, fluttering with her every exhale. Despite their circumstances, she wonders if he can feel the increasingly rapid beat of her heart, wonders if he can somehow sense the tingles racing through her veins.
’I guarantee you're safe with me,’ he'd said, and Ling can't help but believe him. Hazel eyes like sunlight filtering through river water look down at her, winks; her mouth is dry as he says cheerfully, ’here goes nothing.’ Closing her eyes, Ling holds on tighter, braves, and waits.
...and waits.
How long does WINGLACE BLAST take to cast? she wonders. Or is it already over and she simply didn't feel it? Tentatively opening her eyes, looks at Percy just in time for him to scoop her into his arms and leap into the air. She lets out a startled cry, arms tightening around Percy’s neck as he springs up, air whipping her braid out behind them in a long inky snake.
And like a heartbeat, it's over. Percy’s feet hit the ground next to the trap hole, landing safely before letting Ling out of his arms, then sitting down on the ground with a muffled thump. She almost doesn't want to let go, but even she can see from the sweat beading on his skin and the exhaustion in his posture that the spell must have taken a lot out of him. The adrenaline of being so close to Percy, of being so suddenly swept out of the trap, is still buzzing through her veins.
Ling takes a moment to let her heartbeat slow back down to more reasonable levels before smiling brightly at her partner. “Thank you so much!” she says, and Valkea slips to her side with a more sedate word of thanks. "Take as much time as you need," she tells him. She debates plonking down next to him, but decides it's about time she does something more useful than fall into a trap and wait to be rescued; Ling leans over the edge of the hole and begins levitating the cleaning supplies that had fallen in with her out of it.
"Do you think there are a lot more traps like this?" she muses as she works. Ling really isn't the kind of person to be able to stay silent for long, especially with company. Cute company no less. "This is the first one like this I've come across, I've seen a lot of those vine-traps and rope-traps though. Or maybe the traps get harder the deeper you get into the maze."
Post by percival grayreme on May 29, 2017 10:12:28 GMT
[attr="class","Morning"]
[attr="class","mff"]
[attr="class","scarlett"]Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
[attr="class","windyscarlett"]
Percy takes deep breaths to calm himself down. His heart slowly regains its normal pace, and a few minutes later his sweat would dry, making his face and arms sticky all over. Heavens, all he wants to do now is to shower. But he has a mission to finish, and he wouldn't leave a lady alone in a dangerous maze like this. For now, he settles on grabbing a bottle of water, pouring its contents in a towel. There he wipes what he could get off his face.
Despite the unwarranted circumstances he's in, Percy is still glad to have helped someone. Ling's thankful face is enough to compensate for his loss of energy and exhausted mana reserve. She proves herself not a damsel in distress when she begins taking lead of the mission.
"Ah, it's nothing," Percy dismisses. It's only natural for him to help, it's nothing new.
As soon as he can think straight, Percy spills the information he had gathered when he was on the other side of the maze. "Yeah, I do think we'll encounter more of these... I already cleaned at least a quarter of the other size of the maze, and I found no dungeon there. It makes me think that, yes there are repeating traps like the vine and rope ones, but there are also unique traps for each side of the maze. I've been to the center of the maze, too, and you're right. The traps there are harder to evade or escape."
Percy sits more formally, then, omitting his completely lax slouch from before. He purses his lips as he ponders over the numbers in his head. "Rope traps, vine traps, dungeons, and illusioned needle grass trap." Percy just hopes Ling could understand his nomenclature. He isn't exactly good at those. "That's all I've encountered so far."
The male stands up, wobbling slightly but otherwise ready to go. He's thinking, though, about how could they minimize injuries. Instinctively Percy grabs Ling's wrist and tugs at it. "I think it's better if we stick close together. We can keep an eye out for each other."
I press the button and[break]it bursts into life[break]This time nothing will escape my sight
Ling can't stop staring at Percy. She's not entirely indiscrete of course - please, give her some credit - but she can't stop herself from sneaking a sidelong glance at her mission partner every few moments. The way sunlight colours the strands of his hair gold, the way his eyes- Her train of thought comes to an abrupt halt as amusement all but radiates from Valkea's side of their bond, though he shows none of that as pads to her side with inscrutible regal grace. Ugh. Suddenly she feels a strong desire to walk facefirst into a wall. But... that's kinda obvious, and not conductive to her self-imposed task of not making Percy think she's insane. Hopefully, if he notices her looking, it can be passed off as concern.
"Ah, it's nothing." Percy waves off her thanks, and damn it, can he just stop being so nice?! It certainly isn't helping the fluttering feeling inside her chest, or the heat that keeps threatening to creep onto her cheeks.
Thankfully, thankfully there's the mission to distract her; Ling finds herself straightening as her partner relays what he's encountered so far. She pulls a face at the mention of more of these annoying hole traps but continues to listen intently, biting her lip as she parses the information. "You're probably right. I've encountered a lot of rope and vine traps so far, but this is the first trap I've come across that's a little more elaborate than those."
She tilts her head, thinking over her rather limited skill set. "I can break simple illusions and enchantments fairly easily," she muses, "but I'm not that good at detecting traps, as evidenced by, well." She waves her hand in the general direction of the hole they'd just exited to make her point. "I can do some basic barriers as well, but I don't think that'll be of much help here..." she trails off with a sheepish smile.
Percy stands with a slight wobble, and Ling has to suppress a concerned frown. Should she maybe insist that they rest a little longer? Or would that be rude? Occupied with her thoughts, she's caught entirely off guard as the older witch takes her by the wrist and pulls her closer. Her earlier distraction immediately comes flooding back and it's only through sheer willpower and the intense desire not the embarrass herself that she doesn't flush bright red. Valkea's laughter echoes in the back of her mind, making it all the harder to stay composed.
"Uh, yeah, yeah that's smart," she manages to say, and then shuts up before she blurts out something incriminating. Her tongue suddenly seems clumsy, entirely uncooperative to coherent conversation, and her mouth is dry.
percival grayreme - I'm so sorry for the wait!! items used so far: GENERAL: WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA
"I do wonder if we can get out of here alive." Percy stretches his arms and legs, his bones creaking. He relaxes with a huff. "Not to mention that we have to clean each trap and passageway while we're at it. This is really a hassle." Now that Percy is made aware of the tedious task in front of them, the end-goal zooms about a mile out, and Percy grimaces. He's already dirty and tired and they're not even halfway across. He's aware of how he looks, and he wonders if the reason Ling is glancing at him is because of the grime all over his face.
When he hears that Ling can work with illusion, Percy instantly brightens up. "Nifty," he says, slowly smiling. "I'm an illusionist myself, so I can somehow sense illusions along the way. I detect, you break. Good teamwork right here!" He offers a fist bump to Ling, as usual, getting too close and social with someone he just met a while ago.
But hey, they do have connection. It's more than strangers, and he hopes he can make Ling his friend when this is over.
"What do you mean, not much help? We can use barriers to keep grappling vines away," he suggest helpfully. He gets ready to move, and he steps forward and ruffles Ling's hair. If she would look up at him she would see him with a relaxed, reassuring expression, the kind that he thinks would calm people.
"We'll figure it out along the way. Now, if we may?"
He looks around, spots some vines and leaves not exactly on its right place. He trims it down using a small grass cutter.
Percy then steps back and admires his work. Then comes the tricky part: how to proceed from this point. There are already two hole traps in this passage, he doubts there would be another one. "Let's go. First step is to make it out of this passage."
He holds out his hand, gesturing for Ling to take it.
I press the button and[break]it bursts into life[break]This time nothing will escape my sight
Ling tilts her head at Percy's words, wide-eyed and a little caught off guard at this sudden burst of pessimism. But hey, no worries, she is awesome at cheering people up if she does say so herself. "It's not that bad," she counters brightly, gathering up the last of her errant cleaning supplies. "This maze can't be too difficult, right? Otherwise they wouldn't have set two fledgies to clean it." She grins at him and waves a feather duster in his face. "Look on the bright side - we get to explore and experience this awesome maze - and we're getting paid for it."
Cleaning, as it happens, is something Ling's fairly experienced at now, if not simply because of all the practice she's had in tidying up her own messes. Granted, her messes tend to be a little more explosion based and probably a tad bit more destructive, but practice is still practice, right?
As Percy's expression brightens and a smile begins to make its way across his face, Ling lets herself mirror the enthusiasm her partner is regaining. Illusionist huh; quietly, she files away that bit of information about her partner in the corner of her mind she is kinda maybe possibly dedicating to his pretty face. "Teamwork!" she agrees, beaming, and fist bumps Percy with gusto. She tries very very hard not to think too hard about how close he's gotten - she doesn't want to resemble a tomato any more than the next person.
Of course, that resolution gets tossed out the window when Percy steps closer and ruffles her hair, a reassuring tussle that messes up her fringe and sends all kinds of warm and fuzzy feelings aflutter in her stomach. Her cheeks flush pink and she desperately grasps around for something non-embarrassing to do, like, you know, maybe walking face first into a wall, or drowning herself in a lake or something. 'You were talking about your barriers before,' Valkea says helpfully, coming to her rescue before she implodes because of feelings; 'I knew there was a reason why I loved you,' Ling responds with relief and glowing gratitude across their mental link.
"My barriers might take a little bit to set up though," she tells Percy, very purposefully Not Thinking Too HardTM. "But yeah, let's do this!"
Ling slips her hand in Percy's outstretched one, his skin warm against hers, tingles shivering gold in her blood. Mission, concentrate on the mission, she tells herself sternly; but the pink still lingering in her cheeks betray her, as does the strange fluttering cadence of her heartbeat.
percival grayreme - sorry this isn't much ;;; items used so far: GENERAL: WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA
Well, she's right. There is nothing too dangerous in this maze. The mission info said it already. The Khione family forgot to mention, though, that this maze will be irritating and frustrating at most. "You're right," Percy concedes. "It's just best if we finish this mission as soon as possible."
Ling returns his fist bump, and he is glad she did. The fist bump serves as Percy's cue to get back to work. In an hour or so the sun would be at its highest point, he worries dehydration would add to their problems. He leads Ling out of the pathway, carefully treading the edges of the holes until they are out. He lets go of her hand as he surveys the rest of the maze. He has cleaned half of the maze already, only a half to go.
"This isn't a particularly large maze, isn't it?" Percy muses. He looks back at Ling, and--
"Oh heavens are you all right?" he gushes, at a panic on what to do. Who would not panic if he sees his companion red in the face? Maybe she has grown a fever throughout the course of the mission? "Do you need water? What's the problem? Maybe we should have taken a longer break..." He wants to feel her forehead, but he is afraid Ling would not allow the contact. And so he just looks at her, worry in his eyes.
Now that he is really looking at her, he feels like this is the first time he has seen her. Short brunette, with fringes and extensions, beautiful brown eyes and cute small lips. And now he is looking, she is indeed pretty...
Right then Percy contemplates on what to do. There isn't much left, and if they prolong the mission any longer than noon it would surely not be healthy for both of them. "We're close to getting the mission done. Then I can accompany you home, if you want."
He gestures towards the next alleyway, staring and focusing, searching for a possible illusion. He senses two traps, and nods to himself. "Just a little bit longer."
