Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?

[kitchen_maid]

In contrast to the candlelit ballroom, the corridor is dim, lit weakly by a few (generously spaced) torches. There are door down both sides, all closed, and placed almost randomly along the way. The hallway runs away from the ballroom at an angle, and either the lighting or just its sheer length make it impossible to see where it ends.

It's clean, completely free of dust and cobwebs, either because the spell has kept them from accumulating or because someone (or something) has tidied recently.

It is almost perfectly silent, save for the quiet hiss of the closest torch.

Comments

[alsoagreengrass]

"...I think so," Scorpius says, staring at the tutu as well after adjusting to the light again. "Was this the cloud?"

Because the cloud is suddenly gone and now they've got a ballerina. A ballerina who moves as gracefully as can be and responds to their questions with a demi-plié in the fifth position.

And then the ballerina is dragging Scorpius into the room Parker opened.

A room full of mirrors and ballet bars and costume changes.

"Uhm. Parker - !"

[parkerlee]

Parker makes a grab for Scorpius' hand, but misses.

But then, as she eyes the ballerina, who seems to be nothing so much an as animated mannequin (and isn't that just the creepiest thing ever) Parker's not sure that playing tug-of-war with the wizard is the best way to go.

She follows them into the room and does a quick look-around.

Props. Props she can work with.

Parker grabs a wooden sword and starts whacking at the ballerina's arm.

"Let." Thwack. "Him." Thwack. "Go." Thwack.

[alsoagreengrass]

She'd make for a very good beater.

Even if the ballerina seems unruffled by it.

Scorpius is forgotten, shoved toward a costume trunk, as the ballerina makes a grab for Parker instead, trying to -



Trying to position her at the bars?

"Parker, wait! I think, uhm - I think it wants us to dance?"

Which they do not have time for.

He glances around the room, hurriedly. He can work with props too.

"Keep it busy!"

Maybe Parker took ballet as a kid?

[parkerlee]

"Keep it busy? Are you freaking kidding me?"

In point of fact, Parker did take ballet as a child. Mrs. Lee had insisted. Starting at age three, up until age eight when she had finally talked her way into taking gymnastics instead.

So, ballet? Rusty like a rusty thing.

On the other hand.

"Hey! Hey," she says, taking her hands off the bar and waving them to get the ballerina's attention. "Watch me." She wags one finger between her own nose and the ballerina's making sure she has its attention. "Okay?"

Parker steps away from the bar and assumes the starting position of a flamenco dance. After a rather confused moment, the ballerina jerkily follows suit.

I'm about to have a dance off with a giant ballerina doll. How is this my life?

"Scorpius, whatever you're doing, do it fast."

[alsoagreengrass]

"Fast. Right!"

He's already elbow deep in the costume trunk, digging through it.

Tights, hat, cap... He pulls the pieces out in a hurry, leaving the rest scattered across the floor.

"Okay, okay."

He looks around the room for something more and freezes, gaze falling on Parker, distracted for half a moment.

" - What."

[parkerlee]

She's so wearing the wrong shoes for this.

But Parker is making do. Better than the ballerinaton, who is having a hard time copying the complex arm movements and footwork.

"Look, Bruno Tonioli," she says testily in Scorpius' direction. "Critique later. Neutralize Toe Shoes now, please."

[alsoagreengrass]

" - You're doing good, actually," Scorpius calls from the sidelines as he hurries across the room for the final piece.

(Because speaking of mannequins...)

He throws the cape over the shoulders of a suit of armor, struggles with putting the tights on it - (bloody difficult, that) - and tops it with the tricorne hat over its helm.

"Merlin, I hope this works." He puts his wand at the statue. "Piertotum Locomotor."

Metal creaks as the suit of armor cocks its head, coming to life with the magic. It looks at the tights stuck on its legs with a sticking charm.

"Sorry, best I could do.

" -Oi, ballerina! I've got a partner for you."

[parkerlee]

"Hey. Look."

Parker grabs hold of the ballerina and gives it a twirl, making it face in Scorpius' direction.

"It's your knight in shining armor. Literally."

She holds her breath, but the ballerina seems to take to her new partner with no problems.

(Parker hopes that she's imagining that there's a somewhat besotted look in the mannequin's face.)

She sidles toward the door with a mouthed Let's get the heck out of here at Scorpius.

[alsoagreengrass]

Scorpius needs no more prompting than that. He joins Parker at the door and then quietly closes the door behind them.

He blinks, taking in the re-lit corridor, the torches once again burning. And a bit more brightly, at that.

"Right, then.

"Door number two?"

[parkerlee]

Parker leans back against the wall and gestures to a door.

"Be my guest."

What will it be? Square dance? Rumba? Electric slide?

"Actually, I take that back. I think we need a better plan than dancing our way through ever single room."

Assuming that the contents of the rooms are much the same.

[alsoagreengrass]

"We could run along the corridor, opening all the doors, and face it all at once?"

(Just a thought.)

"Or, uhm - I could think of another idea. Maybe there's a spell or I missed something in the book or I could invent a spell? Which is actually quite dangerous and not as easy as it sounds and subjected to Committee ruling, but, er - I don't know."

All this thinking...

He looks at Parker, frowning. Then with determination.

An earthquake started this whole thing, so maybe a little one can give them a bit of help?

He points his wand at himself, casting a Supersensory Charm, and then points it at the floor.

"Uhm. Be ready to run."

[parkerlee]

"I solemnly promise I won't report you for anything."

No committees need be consulted.

"Okay," Parker says, warily.

At least she's a decent sprinter.

"Should I ask what you're doing?"

[alsoagreengrass]

"Er. Starting an earthquake," is all he says as he directs the spell at the floor.

He grabs Parker's hand and gets ready to sprint as the magic travels down the corridor, moving through the stone.

"Just give it a moment."

From far off: A low groan sounds in response.

And then ground begins to shake.

[parkerlee]

"Oh. Of course."

Why not? Shake things up a bit, as it where.

Parker grips his hand tight as they take off down the corridor.

"What do they teach you at that school, anyway?" she asks over the din.

[alsoagreengrass]

"Practical spells!"

Clearly!

"I thought it might open a way for us. To the, uhm - Heart?"

(And it should keep whatever are in the rooms busy enough.)

As he says so, the flooring begins to crack in several places and the walls start to split from the force of violent shakes growing in force.

"And the other spell - " He pulls Parker out of the way as some debris falls from overhead. " - enhances the sense, so I've got ears like X's now. Sort of."

He can, at the very least, hear far better than before and listen for anything out of the ordinary. Like the faint trickle of music, different from the party they'd left behind.

"Ahead, I think - !"

[parkerlee]

"Is that music?"

Parker's hearing isn't quite as keen, currently, but it sounds like there's something under the rumbling ground and falling debris.

The run along the corridor, just far enough ahead of the cracks. Somehow, Parker has kept a hold of the wooden sword. (Any weapon in a storm, she supposes.)

Quite unexpectedly, they reach an intersection of four corridors.

"Which way?"

[alsoagreengrass]

Scorpius pulls her toward the right without pausing to think, then stumbles to a stop a few feet down the new corridor.

"No, never mind, not this way," he says, and he turns them around, heading in the other direction.

Behind them, a door bursts open and a few angry looking clockwork services spill into the hall.

[parkerlee]

Back in the center of the intersection, Parker jerks him to the right, toward a corridor that seems to have a glow of light to it.

It could be an oncoming train, but they'll jump off that bridge when they get to it.

"I'm getting the distinct feeling that we've pissed the whole place off," she huffs.

"Is there some spell that works on clockwork? Rust? Something?"

[alsoagreengrass]

Scorpius, dutifully, shoots a few spells over his shoulder at their pursers. It knocks a couple off course. But -

"Er. They're just repairing themselves.

"Or eating each other, I don't know."

He's not getting a very good look as he runs.

But then he skids to a short stop.

Because not too far ahead are two very large doors, one of which has been knocked from its hinges from the powerful quake and hangs askew. A very pale light and the faint sound (though loud to enhanced ears) trickles out from the room.

"Uhm." Could it be - ? "Maybe -?"

[parkerlee]

"Let's hope it's the 'eating each other' option."

Parker puts on the brakes just fast enough to keep from pulling Scorpius off of his feet.

She eyes the big double doors, though not as long as she'd like. She can hear the clockwork minions back behind them.

"Dead end. I don't think we have much of a choice."

Parker grabs one door handle and starts pulling.

[alsoagreengrass]

Scorpius hurls a few more spells at the approaching minions and then all but shoves Parker into the room as soon as she's worked the door open.

"Close it, close it now," he's saying without even bothering to look around the room first.

The minions are right on them, already bumping against the door and trying to open it.

He casts a few spells on the door, but, with the earthquake and their insistence to get in, the magic might not hold.

(They know this palace better than Scorpius and Parker do, too.)

[parkerlee]

Parker throws her shoulder against the door, shoving it closed. (Thank God for all those bales of hay she's gotten used to heaving.)

She can feel the hoards on the other side of the door. Parker turns, bracing her back against the wood and her feet against the floor, attempting to form a human doorstop.

She almost loses her footing, though, as she faces the interior of the room they have found themselves in.

Parker blinks in something like wonder.

"Oh.....wow."

[alsoagreengrass]

They stand in a massive throne room, with pillars that stretch and branch into the ceiling like carved trees of stone and a walkway down the center in a deep-green like the forest floor. It leads to a raised platform where a large throne sits, flanked by six seats on either side.

Behind those: An enormous pendulum swings back and forth, casting shadows with the light that trickles through the tall frosted windows it hangs in front of.

"Uhm, wow. Yeah. Er."

A bit stunned by the size and scale of the room, it takes Scorpius a moment to realize that they're not alone.

Clockwork guards line the throne room on either side. Guards who slowly turn their heads to look at them.

Scorpius starts talking, fast: "Right, so. Heart of the Palace? Could be the throne room? Maybe we need to stop the pendulum?"

[parkerlee]

Parker looks up from pushing her wooden sword through the handles of the door. Just as an added precaution.

"I'd say it's more promising than a ballet studio," she replies.

It's a throne room, which is way symbolic. It's...well, it's gorgeous and impressive. And then there's that pendulum.

"Heart of a clockwork world? Giant pendulum? Sounds like a potential win to me."

Parker comes to stand beside him, also eying the guards.

"I wonder who's supposed to sit on the thrones."

[alsoagreengrass]

Scorpius shrugs.

"I don't know. Maybe the princesses of the story? Sir Harold said there were only four in actuality, though. And do you hear it still? The, uhm - The music? I can't tell where it's coming from, but it's here."

He takes a few uneasy steps forward, keeping an eye on the guards as he does.

That's when he notices how still the room is. He frowns. "I think the earthquake stopped."

Which means they might be getting a few more pissed off visitors shortly.