TDM #6

[labyrinmods]

Arrival / Enchanted Garden

Whether it be sleep or death, you feel your eyes close, and as your body begins to let go, you see a barn owl that is flying through the darkness, soon sweeping you across the clouded sky. You feel yourself mouth the words, “I wish, I wish..” and utter your deepest and darkest desire.

When you regain consciousness, you’ll find you are in an unfamiliar place with no recognition of how you arrived here. You have the clothes on your back, but nothing else. No weapons and if you had a particular superpower, you’ll notice it is missing. All you have is a satchel with a piece of bread, a vial of water and a potion. The potion could be red, blue or golden. There are no instructions about these potions other than two words: Drink Me.

Will you drink it or not?

There is a parchment, handwritten, and it simply gives you a welcoming:

“Welcome to my Labyrinth. Per our agreement, you have consented to live your life here for an undetermined amount of time. In exchange, I will grant you the wish that you desire the most.”

You’re in a garden, surrounded by flowers and plants– most of which you cannot identify. However, there are a few that you can make out: holly and bluebells.

Standing too close to the bluebells for too long or smelling them will make a Dreamer unable to refuse requests. This can last for however long a player may wish, whether it be for a few days or just a few minutes. The holly, however, also gives off a strange effect when getting too close to it: Dreamers will feel compelled to be more helpful & outgoing, no matter how gloomy and closed off they are. This effect can also last for a few days or a few minutes-- it is up to the player!

Eventually, Dreamers will find their way out of the Enchanted Garden and into the city of Somnius, whether it be by following the alluring light or on their own.

Webby's Sleepover Extravaganza

It’s funny how if you ask for something, sometimes that’s all it takes to have it given to you. Maybe Webby is just that lucky, or Vaeros is feeling just that generous the day it’s requested but for two days and one night only in the beginning of the month of November, a large castle stands where one didn’t before. It’s grand in that it doesn’t need repairs like some of the available housing does, but it’s certainly nothing too awe-inspiring. But, it’s big enough for its purpose—a sleepover party for every inhabitant new or old.

During the night a few days before the party, EVERY person receives a handwritten invitation to this sleepover blowout. It doesn’t matter who, young or old. For those who wake up in Somius after the invitations arrive, they’ll find an invitation just for them in their pocket or satchel, like they were always meant to be invited from the beginning.
Decorations are bright and colorful, spanning the whole rainbow. One giant room full of cots and sleeping bags, blankets and pillows has been made to be the centerpiece of the whole affair. This is where most of the partygoers will mingle and play games, if they’re not too busy with one of the other activities located in one of the other rooms nearby. There’s plenty of room to wander, though any room that has not been decorated and made up for the party is locked down completely with no way in. There are, of course quiet spaces provided for those who need a quick getaway from all the partying. Or maybe going outside for a stroll in the night garden would be calming too?

For those who don’t have anything appropriate to sleep in, pajamas are even provided. But they might be a little silly, since beggars can’t be choosers. Who wants the unicorn fuzzy pajamas?

Games Galore - There’s plenty to play with, at Webby’s insistence (and by insistence we mean she gives you the biggest doe-eyes you’ve ever seen) and she’s more than happy to give you overly-detailed means on how to play the following -

🎉Twister - a huge sheet blotted with colorful spots has been laid on the floor, along with a square with similar colors and a spinny arrow. The rules are simple - one person spins the arrow, and where it lands you put your foot or hand. First to fall loses, so amp up the embarrassment - er, fun as you all get tangled up with each other.
🎉Truth Or Dare - Two options, one chance for chaos. Surely you’re all going to be mature individuals and not ask mortifying questions or dangerous dares.
🎉Pin The Tail On The Donkey - Yes, Webby’s sole guardian was a woman whose idea of fun was from the 1950s, how did you know? But she’s also put up optional sheets of different animals to stick their tail/bodyparts on while you’re blindfolded, including past threats like zombies and skeksis.

Bountiful Buffet - The best way to stay up late is to stuff yourself silly with sugar, which is why the dining room table is loaded with all kinds of desserts. Remy and Aurora have supplied some of their own sugary confections, and you’re more than welcome to have added your own creations to the buffet. Just don’t start any food fights. At least not where Webby can see it!

As though the castle (or whoever ACTUALLY owns it) wants to help assist the party atmosphere, those who partake of the food might feel a little more inclined to be friendly and amenable to party activities. You know, just for those gloomy gusses out there. There are no drawbacks to this little bit of fairy dust, just a little bit of social greasing, you know?

Makeover Makeover Makeover - Vil has ever so kindly offered his beauty supplies for those of you who want to experiment with some new looks, and you’re free to have brought your own. Test it out on one another or try it out yourself. Then again, when he’s not looking, what’s to stop you from trying to paint yourself up like a B-movie monster?

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark - Some of you may have had more than enough of your share of frights due to last month’s… fun, but surely you can handle a bit more fright? In a dark room with only one light torch, gather in a circle and share a spooky story from times gone by. Just be prepared for that one person who always sneaks up from behind and goes BOO at the right time. It’s inevitable.

Pillow Fight - Pick a side or be a lone warrior, grab a pillow and show no mercy! The last one standing wins! The only rule is your pillow is your sole weapon! In fact, there seem to be more pillows available than there are people here, so let the feathers fly! If the castle magically produces more, who’s to say? Shrug and keep the battle going!

Bonfire of Growth

CW: memory share, character specific trauma

Some may be aware that harvest season is a season of growth and not just in the cultivating sense. Townsfolk take this time to evaluate themselves and really think about things in their lives that have potentially been holding them back from being their strongest and truest selves. With the newly accessible Indigo Beach providing plenty of room for multiple bonfires, Dreamers will see several bonfires stretched across the dark blue sand, logs and rocks assembled around each one, beckoning Dreamers near.

As soon as they step out on the beach’s sands, characters will find a slip of paper on their person (in their pocket, up their sleeve.. any readily accessible portion of their clothing.) On that piece of paper, they will have a personalized phrase catered to them, making them remember a painful memory that has held them back in some way. The phrase can be anything players want it to be as long as it jogs the memory back into the head of their characters. Those with a paper slip will feel compelled to sit around the bonfire and contemplate their memory; they also will feel encouraged to share that memory with anyone who is sitting nearby. If characters choose to throw the paper slip into the fire, those who have heard the story of their grief will have a very vivid visual of the event in their mind’s eye along with feeling the exact pain they went through as well.

Once these memories are shared and characters take a moment to grieve, they will feel significantly better about the past situation that caused them so much pain. This can be temporary or permanent, it’s up to the player.

Although refreshments won’t be provided, Dreamers are encouraged to bring their own. And yes, something adjacent to s’mores can be something characters may bring.

Suspicious Message #4

On the morning of the 1st, some dreamers will receive a message from an unknown user.

Who or what from home do you miss the most?

They will feel compelled to respond with a truthful answer, as if their brains had gone into a trance, and before they know it, their response will be there for everyone to see. It cannot be deleted or changed. The user will not respond personally, but you get the sense they are definitely reading.

[ This is an additional network option for characters to interact with. Feel free to add a network prompt into any of your top levels. If you do not want to interact with this prompt, simply assume your character did not get the message. All threads are public unless actively privated by characters. We generally encourage threadjacking and engagement, so feel free to mention if threadjacking is fine with you so that others are aware. Note that the NPC will not be actively responding. ]

OOC

Welcome to the labyrinthum TDM! All events are game canon. New characters (invited or not) and old characters alike are welcome to play in it. Existing characters can start their own logs or network posts for the event if they wish to.

New and Old characters are welcome to top level on the TDM. Please state in the header if you are a new or old player! Also, new characters may link their top levels under the new character comment so they are easier to find. Thanks for your cooperation!

New characters will arrive depowered and with only their clothing, and will be given a satchel with a crystal pendant, a communication device, some water and bread and a magic potion. If they drink the potion, they will manifest an elemental, healing or animal transformation ability.

With the exception of Castle Vaeros, characters are free to go as they please, so feel free to place them in any of the locations available on the map.

You can find more information about the game here. Any questions regarding the TDM can go under the comment below. Special thank you to Melissa for the player plot and prompts!

Comments

[doctor_uhh]

For all his humble acting skills, the girl's undaunted and earnest attempt at solving this mystery nearly scatters the ominous and foreboding air he's been cultivating here. He keeps it together, of course, but his eyes curve into pleased crescents with a delighted smile for a moment before he gets back to the story. It's just that she doesn't even know how close she's gotten to the truth on her first try. Smart girl. He's going to have to watch out for this one.

"Oh it was quite tight, quite tight. Heavy, too, with all that silver. But it had been in the Guo family for generations, you understand, a treasured heirloom. No one would dare make any alterations to it, to make it a little easier to bear for the young brides. So every few years, a promising and hopeful young lady such as yourself," he nods to his cleverest audience member, "would come to the manor to marry into the family. And every dawn of the wedding day would find the bride drowned in the manor's lotus lake, still wearing the cursed dress." He delivers these lines with a gravity that befits the tragedy, though with enough dramatic flourish to hopefully avoid it sounding a little too real. Once again he glances at the girl, to see if she's got any further guesses on the cause of death or the true culprit, at this point.

[waterfawn]

Eilonwy likes puzzles almost as much as she likes walks in the woods. As the story is continued, she puts aside trying to figure it out for a few minutes and simply gets lost in the telling. She has some ideas but she's still a kid herself, and a good story can be enjoyed without trying to solve it immediately.

Eilonwy exhales, picturing the scene of some poor woman in the lake, people upset that it must have been a curse and blinks as things click. The flourish provided has dulled a lot of the fear of this being more than just a story; and she she ventures her guess.

"Wait. You said the dress was tight fitting and heavy, and never had alterations? Unless the brides were the same height as the original owner, their arms and legs would have-- Well, maybe not have been frozen in place, but it would be harder for them to move. If they slipped and fell in, with their arms and legs weighed down by the outfit, and their heads weighed by the crown, they would have sank." If it actually turns out to be ghosts or some other kind of supernatural curse, she'll feel a bit foolish for overthinking things.

[doctor_uhh]

Luckily for her, nothing ever turned out to actually be ghosts where he's from, though some of those murder cases certainly would have made for better stories if they had featured a ghost or two. Perhaps he'll fix that in the retelling, if he's persuaded to share another story later.

Another grin threatens to break the immersion at her astute analysis of the clues he's provided. It's true, you could barely walk in the dress, forced to take dainty little steps by the narrow hem, so easy to trip over and once you'd fallen, it was almost impossible to get up. He recalls hitting the water with a painful splash, then sinking like a stone-- but he isn't in this story, at least not as anything but the omniscient storyteller. Li Lianhua schools his expression quickly, wagging a finger to emphasize his counterpoint.

"Ah, but after the first accident, why wouldn't the master of the manor secure the banks of the lake? And what was each bride doing outside on the night before the auspicious hour?" He can't be making it too easy for the girl, naturally.

[waterfawn]

Eilonwy falls quiet as she thinks. Those are both very good questions that she hasn't considered at all. Why would a bride go out in her full wedding clothes ahead of the time to marry? Not that she'd attended many but even Eilonwy knows that most brides are kept out of sight for their wedding until the time of the ceremony itself.

After a moment she shakes her head. "I don't know.. Unless maybe the ground wasn't always as weak, that could explain some of it. As for what the brides were doing, you didn't mention a wishing well, so I doubt all of them had the same idea to throw a coin into the water. If the lake was as pretty as you describe it, and they were nervous-- maybe they went to the lake to calm down before the wedding?"

Eilonwy is leaning more on her own experience- spending time by a lake or in nature itself helped her calm down. And a wedding is a very big event. She looks back, expectantly.

[doctor_uhh]

It's honestly a little funny to realize that the three grown men investigating the actual murder case were falling for the same logical fallacy as a literal child - that all three brides must have had the same reason for falling into the lake, and the same murderer. If Fang Duobing were here-- but he isn't, and that's for the best.

Besides, this is a story, and he has a child's expectation for how this story should go to live up to. Though this child is apparently more practically minded than he was expecting, so a little realism can't hurt. It's a delicate balance to uphold, and Li Lianhua is enjoying the challenge.

"The lake was indeed very pretty. Beautiful lotus flowers in all their bright colors were growing from its soil, and the lake's surface was calm and clear enough to reflect all the stars and the moon in the sky. The young miss would know better than me if the brides were nervous, or perhaps excited - maybe a bit of both, eh? And when you're so excited, wouldn't you also try on the wedding dress and wear the crown, just to see? Well let me tell you, there was only one problem. On each night - and let me remind you, these weddings occurred years apart - a mirror was nowhere to be found in the bridal chamber."

A dramatic pause at this point is followed by a confused expression at this mysterious turn of events, turning to the girl for her helpful input. "How could that be? And what's a bride to do?"

[waterfawn]

Eilonwy is fairly practical, all things considered, but that comes with her homeland. But she's still a product of that homeland and of being raised to learn and explore.

It's a balance between being practical and just being open to the fact that supernatural things exist that merges into her version of normal. Trolls can look like dogs and speak plainly, fairies can come out of nowhere and help guide you on a journey, magic can be pulled out of the air once you study it enough. In theory, Prydain itself should be one giant headache, but it isn't. Much like his own balance of storytelling, so is Eilonwy's view of everything.

So when the story is continued, Eilonwy pictures everything and nods in agreement at being both nervous and excited and then it clicks. Especially after he mentions mirrors.

"Because mirrors can be bad luck- especially if you break them! But if they still wanted to see how they looked, then going to a body of water would be the fastest way to see themselves. Leaning over would cause their balance to change and then.."

Eilonwy trails off, the sheer creepiness of the situation landing. Her tone goes a bit softer. "Then they would fall in, and drown." Again, she pictures it, and the fun of solving the mystery is muted by the fear that must have came with such a thing. Eilonwy rubs her arms with her hands, shivering a little. "I'm sure the water was very cold, especially at night. Temperatures can drop then."

But Eilonwy is worried about her reaction being seen as not appreciating the work of the storyteller, so she shakes her head and then refocuses. "Is that it?" she asks after a moment, a little fear climbing into her voice. Part of her doesn't want to know the answer. Almost.

can i just say this is absolutely one of my favorite threads

[doctor_uhh]

A little fear is part of the experience, after all, is healthy at hearing such a horrid tale. As is the compassion she clearly feels at the fate of the brides, and Li Lianhua slips into a gentle smile for a moment. It was a horrible thing to do to these women, and she's right to be upset.

But not too upset, and he resolves for this to be the lowest point of the story. He hadn't really settled on an ending, before, but watching the girl now, he can't bear to conclude the story with a 'they all died a cold and lonely death, the end'. Perhaps a lotus can have a little compassion, too.

He settles once more into his storyteller mien and gives her a regretful nod. "Quite so, I'm afraid. But," he pauses, and a small smirk brightens his face. "This humble storyteller is sorry to say that he wasn't quite honest with you, at the start. For you see, there was a fourth bride. And when she came to look into the hungry waters of the lake, a lotus flower took pity on her. It warned her not to get too close, advising her to search her groom's private rooms to save not only herself, but the unhappy souls of the brides that came before her. And this bride, you see, was quite curious and brave. So she followed the lotus flower's advice, and do you know what she found hidden in his room?"

Since she can't possibly know, he will leave her in suspense for only a moment before revealing a new clue. "The bridal chamber's mirror! Along with a love letter from a woman that wasn't any of the brides at all." Now what will she make of that?

bless, glad you're having fun with it too!

[waterfawn]

Eilonwy blinks in surprise as the fourth bride is mentioned, and while she's still feeling sad for the three that died this twist is helping to make the entire experience of the story easier to roll with. It's a mix of emotions but not one that she dislikes.

Stories can and do come in different versions. Even if most of the legends back home end in some sort of 'And the hero was remembered for their bravery' final line, or 'With hard work you can achieve anything' note on morality. There were other stories but Eilonwy had been barred from hearing the terrifying ones, which helped feed her ideas of how fairies and the supernatural work. That might be a problem in the future, but she's not focused on that right now. Right now, the supernatural is friendly and normal.

As Li Lianhua continues, she leans forward slightly. The fourth bride found a mirror and a love letter? Eilonwy goes from rubbing her arms to folding them in thought. "Was the letter from a former lover who moved away, maybe? Letters are used to keep in touch, so.. Maybe that was held onto as a memento. Could the mirror be used on the lake itself? Or could the fourth bride look into it and see the other three?" Her mind is whirling with ideas on how this can resolve, and she's fully invested in hearing more.

[doctor_uhh]

The girl's thought process continues to surprise him, though this time it might be owed simply to her age; to not so easily make the connection between a hidden love letter and a secret affair. He'd thought that would be pretty obvious, to be honest. Lesson learned about suiting the details of his stories to his audience! In his defense, his audience most often used to consist of adults carrying varying degrees of guilt and complicity for the crimes at hand. He'll forgive himself a bad guess at this time.

Li Lianhua considers her idea for the mirror, too, and finds it quite appealing to imagine a story in which the dead are allowed to be seen and speak for themselves. He's done what he can, in that regard, but wouldn't it be good if the dead could secure their own justice? Speak out for their own peace?

"Ah, you must have heard of this before," he says with a conspiratorial smile. "It was indeed a magic mirror, and it allowed her to see the three mournful brides when she looked into it. They were a sad sight, pale and sodden with lake water. Our bride must have felt such dread at this strange reflection of a fate she nearly shared. But, do you think perhaps it was this shared fate that allowed her to understand the words they were whispering?

"All three spoke of how their matches with the young master of the manor had been arranged by the young master's father, and how the groom had seemed like a fine, gentle young man. A little distant, perhaps, but that's to be expected when you barely know each other, right? Only then they spoke of drowning, and witnessing the next bride in their line come along, and their restless souls saw what had really happened... It was the groom who took the mirror away, to tempt them to the water's edge! It was the groom who had another woman on his heart, one he was not allowed to marry. It was him who decided their lives were worth so little, compared to his own heartbreak."

Li Lianhua knows that's a pretty grim revelation on its own, and he lets it sit for a moment before prompting the girl's contribution yet again. "I wonder how you think our bride must have felt? What could she do?"

[waterfawn]

That's a fair assumption on his part. In addition to how she's been raised, the only relationships Eilonwy's seen in Prydain have been healthy ones, for the most part. Lovers who were in love, or siblings who would fight with each other one minute and be laughing about it the next. The idea of an affair is something she's never been exposed to except in the briefest passing in mythology. Why use mythology as a starting point for a twist when her own reality is right there?


At Li Lanhua's conspiratorial smile she shakes her head 'No' quickly but settles in to continue listening. As the twist and reveal are dropped, Eilonwy gasps and covers her mouth with one of her hands. Again she can picture it very clearly. How would she feel hearing that someone she'd loved had murdered others and disregarded life? Everything hits and before she realizes it, Eilonwy's eyes sting with tears- not just of sadness but of anger. She reaches up and wipes at her eyes, taking a breath and forcing her voice to steady.

"She must have been very shocked, hurt and angry. Did she confront the groom with what she learned?"

Eilonwy again leans into her own understanding. She can be ready at a moment's notice to fight but she doesn't without having a cause behind it. The idea of grabbing a weapon and heading to get answers sounds very grand in stories, but in reality it can be a quick way to find yourself injured at best, or murdered at worst.

[doctor_uhh]

There's a certain kind of satisfaction to earning such a strong reaction, as there always is when he reveals the final shape of what happened. Anticipating his audience's reactions correctly, constructing an inescapable truth from all the details gathered before, it's quite nice to be proven right and see justice done in the same breath. Of course the stakes are much lower when it's only a story, which suits him just fine now. And it hardly means he can slack off! Not that he would set out to make a child cry, but it's obvious she isn't distraught so much as caught up in the story, which is what she came here for after all.

And it's easy to get caught up in her righteous anger in turn, Li Lianhua nodding and pointing at her eagerly. "Of course she did! She lost no time to go see him, taking the letter and the mirror with her as proof. And can you believe he tried to deny everything? Tried to claim the affair long over, tried to claim he only took the mirror to save his brides from the bad luck that might kill them. Oh he acted so regretful, truly a fox mourning a dead rabbit. He even accused her in return of snooping, of fabricating an outrageous lie to get out of marrying him!"

Li Lianhua is aware he mustn't flub the ending of this tale, to make all the emotion she's invested worthwhile, but which route to choose? Justice must be done, but which kind would she enjoy most? A trial of his peers is the sensible, real-world option, and she is quite the sensible little person herself. But isn't it a little unbefitting of the ghost story this has become? A death, then, in revenge or self-defense? Some other punishment? Maybe he can coax one last direction out of her before he chooses one himself.

He looks at her with the same kind of dismayed expression she might be wearing to ask, "How could she stand for this? How could the brides in the mirror?"

[waterfawn]

Eilonwy thinks, taking in everything. She has nothing to compare that level of betrayal to- possibly just because of her age, but also just because of how Prydain itself operates. It's not as simple as 'all people are either good or evil', it's simply that the ones who are evil are easy to see. The Horned King hadn't wandered around looking normal, building relationships and then just one day decided to try to raise an army of the dead to subjugate every living area he came across.

But this story is obviously different, there's a layer to it she wasn't expecting but it's not a bad thing at all. As Li Lianhua described the argument and justifications, Eilonwy frowns. A fox mourning a rabbit sounds accurate. At thinking of the Horned King she blinked as the parallels snapped into place- ill fitting, but working enough. The same arrogance, the same justifications, the same gloating of an assured victory if the villain could just stop talking long enough to sit back and enjoy the spoils of his work.

But unlike what had happened during the fight with the Horned King there wasn't a familiar answer, but there was one. She pushes the memories of seeing the wood troll they'd befriended throwing himself into the cauldron after remarking of his lack of friends, coupled with her and Taran's yells of shock and hurt out of her mind and focuses.

Eilonwy is sensible perhaps more than she should be at times but being raised in the world she comes from there are a few things held above everything else. So in spite of her sensibility or perhaps to work along side it, she goes for an option that fits but also acknowledges the supernatural aspects. Switching to nothing but logic would be a disservice, but switching to nothing but magic wouldn't work, either. Another balancing act for both of them, but one that she's fine to handle as she metaphorically steps onto the rope above the entire universe Li Lanhua's woven out like a tapestry.

When she speaks, in spite of her expression being a mix of hurt and anger, her tone is resolute. She knows enough of what she'd want to have happen in this situation, even if the emotions behind it are decades ahead of her.

"They wouldn't have been able to, I don't think. Having someone that unrepentant, coupled with him denying everything that he'd done, trying to use pity to bury it and then getting angry for being discovered.." Eilonwy trails off and shakes her head. "Could the mirror be used to show everything he'd done? To force it out into the open so he couldn't deny anything? It would be hard to do that if the acts followed him everywhere, or his crimes were told to everyone quicker than he could deny things." Again she's leaning more to Prydain myth, specifically of a story of a Fae who cursed a human to have their true feelings be spoken every time they tried to lie.

Aware that Li Lianhua wouldn't know that, she clarifies. "That was one of the endings in a myth I heard when I was younger. Someone had magic put on them to where they had to always tell the truth, even if it was hurtful, because of how often they lied to benefit themselves. But if it wouldn't fit here, then by all means, pick one that does work."

[doctor_uhh]

Her solution to the dilemma of balancing the ending once again fascinates Li Lianhua; having his crimes follow him wherever he goes, known by everyone no matter what he does to hide or escape, sounds like a horrible fate indeed. It's not a life for a life, such a common kind of justice where Li Lianhua comes from. What she seeks to see punished aren't the murders as much as the deception and arrogance of young master Guo, taking lives like it was nothing and thinking he was above the harm he'd caused. He really had been completely unrepentant, fanatic in his hatred for his father; taking his life would only have allowed him to die feeling he was in the right.

The myth she references sounds like a horror story in its own right, but Li Lianhua doesn't even have time to shudder before her little addition surprises a laugh out of him. Pick one? As caught up as she was in the story, she's never stopped being aware that it is a story, it seems, with a malleable ending to craft together. Li Lianhua isn't put out by that in the least, only amused and a little impressed; hard to pull the wool over this one's eyes, eh? She'll surely grow up to be a remarkable and formidable young woman.

"No need," he smiles, "I think that must be exactly what happened." Once again he picks up his storytelling voice, slipping right back into the action. "Our bride realized that she would get nowhere with that man and resolved to appeal to the master of the manor, his father, instead. His father being the one with all the power over his fate, the young master finally saw the sword coming down on him and tried to stop her! But we mustn't forget the spirits of the brides in the mirror, who cried out in such grief and fury that all the servants of the manor were called as witness to the scene, and finally the master of the manor appeared as well. The mirror was held up for all to see his crimes and the suffering of his brides, and he found himself cast out from his family and his home."

It would be easy to end it here, but there's a few more threads he'd like to wrap up. "With their true fates brought to light, the dead brides were finally freed from their attachment to this life and able to move on to the afterlife, and the living was allowed to return to her own family in peace. As for that former young master, no matter who he turned to, whose paths he crossed, unfailingly that mirror would appear in their possession, revealing his true nature before he could so much as beg for pity. Who could say what's become of him, eh? But one thing is for certain; with no heartless heir in the house, no one else was ever made to wear that cursed dress again."

[waterfawn]

Eilonwy can get lost in a story as easily as the next person but she stays aware that they're fictional. She has to and this comes more from yet another balancing act- there's a time to almost forget that what you're reading isn't real and a time to focus on the present of your reality. As much as she'd love to fully put up the knowledge of knowing she's reading a story, Eilonwy simply wasn't raised like that. She would sometimes ask questions like 'But what happened to the talking fox after?' or 'What about the next town the bard visited?' only to be gently reminded that it had just been a story. The road back to reality was never blocked off, not even to satisfy her growing curiosity and love of tales. In a way, it's sad, but Eilonwy prides herself on it a bit.

Just because she's aware of a story being a story, Eilonwy still likes heading into them, picturing them, and moving onto the next when it's time. She reads as much as she can, and is open to things that some people would balk at. A story doesn't have to follow logic or rules, and it can just work because it's fictional. That's the fun of it, even if the stories are scary.

As Li Lianhua finishes the story, Eilonwy exhales a breath she wasn't even aware she's been holding and gives a nod. "I'm glad everything worked out." It was a satisfying ending, carried by Li Lianhua's telling and her throwing out ideas that could be worked with. A bit of mental clay formed into something new.

Eilonwy puts her hands together and claps politely. "You're an excellent storyteller! Thank you for sharing it."

[doctor_uhh]

Isn't it funny, for as much as Li Lianhua likes to tell stories, he hardly ever receives applause for them (mostly because he gets scolded for lying or threatened with violence for exposing the truth instead). This is a nice change of pace, honestly, and the telling was made all the more enjoyable for the girl's creative and passionate contributions. He smiles warmly and offers a small bow in gratitude.

"Thank you, thank you. Ah, but a storyteller is nothing without his audience, and you were one of the best, young miss. Allow me to show my appreciation as well." And he plucks a piece of candy from his sleeve and sets it down in front of her, as a little treat. There's no need to remember the storyteller, but maybe she'll keep the story with her for a little while.