Gloria's body lays in the grass, the overgrown blades hitting against the porcelain. All emotion had left her face, her fingers on her right hand were grasping the edge of her dress. 



Everyone stands around Gloria frozen, and scared. Was it too late to still find the life stone? Perhaps the life stone could also give back life to one that once had it. However, humans could never return from the dead (except for some rare instances in Sailor Moon  ) but what about a doll?


{{I will guide you through this RP in small portions since this is a casual slow paced RP. Start: Talk about a plan, show your emotion/reactions...what do you do?}}

Bump

Zena wasn't sure why she was at the shrine, but she felt something or rather someone calling to her. When she arrived at the location thats when it all made sense. She looked down at the doll and her memories came rushing back to her. She remembered something about her being real at some point, but something went terribly wrong and caused her to turn into a doll again. 

Zena bent down and brushed the grass and leaves off of Gloria and spoke in a soft voice, slightly laced with fear, "I don't know what happened, but I will do whatever I can to help you out of this." Zena said, knowing what it was like to be forced back to a life you don't want, to be trapped waiting for someone to break you out of the prison you were once encased in.

Zena stood back up and wrapped her arms around her waist and looked around to see if anyone else was going to show up.

“G-Gloria,” Kiyoko stumbled. She stood in front of the now inanimate doll.
 
She didn’t know her very long but nevertheless Kiyoko felt an ache near her heart. It happened again. A friend left her. Tears were rolling down her face. Kiyoko had to watch this again: the awful scenery of someone dying…of someone dear to her dying. She sobbed. Why couldn’t she prevent her from death? Why wasn’t it possible to prevent anyone from death? All her memories started to return. Her parents, her siblings, her friends – everyone has died. And now it was one friend more.
 
“Gloria! Please, wake up! Wake up and show us you’re alive,” she said, her voice quite loud now. It was more of a rarity that Kiyoko showed her feelings, it was even more rare she cried. But she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t see a friend dying without showing any feelings. Not even Kiyoko, the usually emotionless lady, could do that.
 
“We’ll save you! That’s for sure!”

Usagi was frozen in shock. Seeing Gloria turn to porcelain before her eyes was horrifying and heartbreaking. After everything Gloria had done, had it really amounted to nothing?

As the tears poured down her face, Usagi fell to her knees besides Gloria's fragile form. "I...I'm so...so sorry, Gloria," Usagi cried, picking the doll up and hugging her tightly. Usagi had never failed a friend before, and she knew she would never be able to forgive herself for this.

A dark voice echoed around her, and Usagi looked around frantically in attempt to find the source. Seeing nothing but the tomb's entrance, she wondered where it had come from. They were in a graveyard, after all. Who knew what kind of creepy entities would be here. The thought made Usagi shudder, and she glanced at her new friends nervously. "W-what do you think that means?" she asked, wondering if the others heard the voice too.

Looking down at Gloria's peaceful face, a thought suddenly struck Usagi. "Could...could it be possible that she's still alive?!" A burst of hope and energy filled Usagi at her own suggestion, causing her to suddenly stand with Gloria in her arms. "We have to go down there!"

In a clumsy movement, she moved Gloria so that the doll was hoisted on her back, with her porcelain arms hooked around Usagi's neck so she wouldn't fall.

Zena didn't like what she was feeling, it made her defensive, and put her guard up. She wanted to shed her human exterior and be in her true form, but revealing herself would be a bad idea. She had to hide her powers. Zena took a breath and looked down at the blonde girl who was holding Gloria in her arms.

"She may still be alive, there's no way of knowing, well not anything that would be within my limits of knowledge to test if she's alive" Zena said as she turned her head and gazed at the sky. It was still clear, but if something inside her faltered it could mean trouble. Zena pushed her earthen connected powers down deep, so they would be harder to access.

Zena was thinking about the riddle, could it be Gloria had a glimmer of hope after all?  she thought as she nodded towards the blonde.

"I am all for following you down there, but I would like to know who I am going down there with, I'm Zena, and you are?" she said in a cheerful tone.

Sailor Nocturnus

Pamina hung back from the crowd around the doll, watching the scene. She wasn't sure exactly what she had stumbled on, but the atmosphere felt heavy with sorrow. She could vaguely see the doll collapsed in the leaves, but she didn't understand the significance. Everyone around looked so sad... Quietly, the younger girl followed the group as they took the doll towards a nearby building. She wondered what was going on.

And then she heard a strange voice in the wind. Pamina stiffened, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck rise. A... a tomb? Well... she didn't want to be frightened off. Someone clearly needed saving, and as a sailor soldier-in-training, that was part of her duty. Even if she didn't completely know the situation.

The words that were on the wind sounded strange... but she couldn't quite piece them together.

As the others announced they were going into the tomb to help, Pamina cautiously stepped forward and waved awkwardly at the group.

"Um... I'd like to help, please," she said. "I'm Pamina."

Map:

Down the rocky steps the friends venture, Gloria holding onto Usagi, although motionless, you can still hear her heart beating in the silence. The sound could be heard in the deep quiet as they reach the bottom of the stairwell. The passage leads into a small square room, the walls made of stone and overgrown with roots from the plans that groow above. The ground is nothing special, just dirt, which sounds hollow when stepped on. Opposite from the stairwell are two Rose Shaped handles, one red, and one white. The door, made of stone, remains shut, unable to be opened. 

Tasks to be completed by 9pm EST 5/21
Do you pull the Red Rose Lever, the White Rose Lever, or both? Vote/ RP your decision
Select a number in a spoiler: 1 through 8. Once a number has been used, it can no longer be used. This indicates your standing positions once the levels are being pulled. 8 is closest to the door, 1 is furthest by the stairwell.

Ineas Nyrak mostly hung at the back of the crowd, watching the scene evolve before her. This was quite a confusing scenario. Everyone seemed to be gathered around...a doll? Ineas, while growing up, had seen a great many cursed or otherwise enchanted dolls in her mother's shop on Venus. Observing the scene, she deduced that the doll had to be important to everyone, though having never been around the doll before, she felt little emotion of her own. She would not intrude on everyone's sorrow, either.

The wind whistled and moaned, making Ineas' blonde curls dance in the breeze. The woman's solemn face changed into a crooked grin as the riddle blew past along with the breeze. She loved riddles, and as the Senshi of Discord, mischief and trickery were among her strong points. Clearly, according to the riddle, the doll was alive at some point, she could be brought to life, and she herself was being invited into the tomb. Like a shadow, Ineas slipped inside along with the others.

"By the way," the woman quipped, "My name is Ineas, and I believe that we should pull both levers. That way, we can see which lever leads to where we want to go. Am I right?"

Spoiler:

Usagi was more than grateful for the help of her new friends. Making a mental note of their names, she smiled and said, "My name is Tsukino Usagi, but most call me Usagi. Thank you all for your help."

She lead the way down the stairs, making sure Gloria was secured on her back. Faintly, Usagi felt like there was a heartbeat pulsing through Gloria's porcelain chest, and that small fact gave her even more hope. Gloria still had a chance, and that was all the encouragement Usagi needed.

Spotting the two levers, Usagi tilted her had at Ineas's suggestion. "I don't know if it will work that way..." she said uncertainly. Her eyes were glued on the red rose lever. It reminded her of Mamoru, and she knew that if he were here, that would be the one he would pick. 

"I choose this one," Usagi said, stepping forward and standing next to the red lever. "It...reminds me of someone special."

She had always followed her heart, right?

Position:

Sailor Nocturnus

The tomb made Pamina shiver, but she was determined to take part. She followed Usagi, keeping close to the blonde as they wandered down the passage.

When they stood facing the levers, it was hard for her to make up her mind.

"If we can pull both, I wouldn't mind, but if Tsukino-san prefers the red lever I have no objections. It's too bad there isn't a clue from the doll..."

Or was there? She stepped closer to Usagi and peered at Gloria's body, wondering if there would be anything on the doll that might make the choice of red or white seem clearer.

Position:

Kiyoko brushed her tears away as she noticed a dim light coming from the tomb. Was there someone talking? She turned around. That’s odd; Except her and the other girls there was no one else in the graveyard. But who could have said that? The imagination itself sent cold shivers up and down her spine; she almost overheard the girl with the odangos suggesting to enter the tomb.
 
But before she could say anything, it has been decided. The girl who suggested that took Gloria and carried her on her back, the others were following and together they all walked towards the tomb’s entrance.
 
The stairwell was straitening, too straitening – Kiyoko didn’t feel well with her claustrophobia. Pull yourself together, she reproached herself. You are an adult. You can’t be afraid of small rooms. That’s silly.
 
When they entered the small room, Kiyoko saw two rose-shaped handles in front of her: one was red, the other one was white. What might they be good for?
 
Deep in thoughts, she overheard how they were already deciding which one to pull. Kiyoko preferred the white handle. Of course she did. White was the color of healing – it was self-explaining why she liked the white one more. However, she was more worried about the room. How large was that room? 9 m²? At any rate it was too small.
Why did she left Vulpix at home? He would have comforted her now.
 
A bit uncomfortable she watched how the others decided about the handles. After she thought about it for a few minutes she came to the conclusion that it'd be better to refrain from the decision. Everything she wanted right now was to leave. But she couldn’t. She had to stay. For Gloria.

Spoiler:

Zena smiled at Usagi, why did this girl look so familiar, why did Zena feel like maybe they were friends....or was it enemies in the past. She pushed those thoughts aside as she smiled and said "no problem, I hope that we can help Gloria out, it is awful what has happened to her. She followed the others down the steps, not wanting to go down too far, she stopped not too far from the entrance. Truth be told, she was going to want to get the heck out of town if things went south and started to get creepy.

After she stopped and looked at the levers presented before her. She had always had an attraction to red things and she said with a smile, "I choose this one." as she puled the red rose lever.

Spoiler:

Usagi and the others discuss among themselves as to decide which lever to pull. Some favor the red, others the white, and one favors both. After a long drawn out nerve-wracking process, the friends finally decide on the red handle. Usagi, closest to the door, pulls the selected handle and nothing happens. The ground begins shaking, and and small parts of the floor crack around everyone's feet. Slowly, the door drops down into a hidden slit in the door frame, and another room is exposed. Everything because still, quiet.

Spoiler:

The next room is a very long slanted area. It is almost hard to keep your footing since the ground is wet stone from water dripping from the sides of the walls, down from the Earth above. There are no doors in this room, except an opening at the far end of the room. It is about 10-11 feet above the floor due to the slant of the flooring. However, not impossible to reach. The storm from above pours harder, soaking the ground. The room slowly begins to flood. Everyone must find their own way to reach the opening. If everyone chooses the same method, you will surely not make it in time.


Some tree roots hang from the far left wall, twisting and turning through the stone wall. This is a plausible way to reach the opening. On the second hand, there are a few stones missing, so one could perhaps scale the wall. One last way would be to climb on one anothers shoulders and allow one to climb up, then hoist the second behind.

What do you do? To be completed by 5/22 11pm EST
Highlight your answers in red. First come first serve.
1 can pick the tree roots
1 can pick the wall climb
2 for the hoist and pull.
Last to reply....muahaha you get a surprise
RP your actions, and leave your posts in mid action. (Do not complete and reach the opening in your post. muahahhaha >:] )

Map:

Layout of the 2nd room:

{{{Saturn has the best map skills.....}}}

Sailor Nocturnus

Pamina considered the options as best she could when the room began to fill with water. There seemed to be a few ways out for this small group. She spotted the roots, noticed the hand-holds, and thought about the height of the wall. It wouldn't take much to boost someone else up to that opening, but she didn't think she had enough strength for that option or to pull up another party member if she was hoisted up first. In fact, as the youngest and smallest of the group, she was probably most likely to succeed with the roots.

The dark-haired girl splashed through the deepening water and took hold of the roots, starting a careful ascent towards the opening above.

The whole room began to shake and Kiyoko heard how everything started to move. With all of her concentration, Kiyoko tried to hold the balance.
Gradually the shaking stopped. As Kiyoko straightened herself, she saw a new entrance. What joker did that? Why couldn’t it be a regular tomb? Why did she always get into these riddles?
 
The next room was more elongated – thank goodness. The greater space made her feel better. However, there seemed to be another problem. The ground started to get filled from water and the next opening was at the other side of the room - at a great height on top of that.
 
She looked around. How could they get up there? There were roots and stones but neither of them looked very stable. Was there maybe another possibility to get up there?
 
“Okay,” she eventually said, her eyebrows still knitted from her thinking process. “I might not be a hulk but you can climb on my shoulders to reach the opening. I’m used to weight on my shoulders, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
 
“It would be great if you could pull me up after everyone has made it to the opening,” she added after a small pause and hit the road through the water on the ground.

Zena looked around, she was going to have to have a hard time keeping her powers in check. She saw an entry way into a new room, one that was quickly filling with water. oh great, just what I need, a room full of water. She wasn't scared, in fact the opposite. She had a connection with water, one that would be shown if she didn't stay calm.

Zena thought for a minute before saying to the group, "I am going to climb the wall, I think its the best option for me." Zena said as she braced herself to climb the wall.

Kiyoko offered to the teammates for someone to climb her shoulders, however Usagi and Ineas were busy arguing about who should climb up. Usagi had a valid point since she was carrying Gloria, but Ineas was insisting on climbing up first so she could help lift Gloria before Usagi climbed up.

 Kiyoko was sick of the arguing, and as the water rose, she began to panic. She went up the rocks after Zena and reached her arms down with Zena and Pamina who had climbed the roots. Usagi and Ineas handed Gloria to Zena and Pamina. The water began to rise rather quickly as the ground begins to open up from above. The water is draining into lower levels of the tomb, however for the current moment the girls must retreat quickly. 

The opening above turns out to be a small platform that drops 3 feet on the other side. Only 4 people can sit at the top at a time. Currently Gloria, Zena, kiyoko, and Pamina are at top.

Task: To be completed by 5/25 11pm est.
RP getting Zena and Usagi out of the room & get down the 5ft drop. 
You are unable to "see" the next room with roleplaying until this task is complete. I will give details of the next room once this task is complete.

Bump! 

Come on guys....

Zena didn't like the position she was in. She held onto Gloria, she hoped she wouldn't drop the doll, their efforts would all be for nothing if she did that. Zena walked out of the room but stopped when she saw the darkness, could tell there was a drop of some sort, but she couldn't see how far, or what was in the next room. The unknown had not been something Zena liked. She braced herself figuring she may as well move forward, it couldn't be that bad, well it could be but she was trying to stay positive. 

With a jump, Zena leaped, letting out a scream as she came crashing to the ground with a hard thud. The drop wasn't as bad as she anticipated and her feet burned from jumping. She shouted to the others, "its not a large drop, but I still can't see a darn thing." She said as she clutched Gloria closer to her chest and did her best to find an outline of anything in the pitch black room.

Usagi was glad she seemed to have made the right decision about the levers, but now she found herself in an even tighter spot. But what was important was that Gloria was safe in the hands of her new friends.

More concerned for her own safety now, Usagi searched for some way out of the room as water began to rise rapidly. After Zena leaped, Usagi quickly took her spot on the top and prepared herself to jump after her. "Move out of the way!" she yelled down, hoping Zena would move in the right direction. With a small yelp, Usagi jumped down after her, landing flat on her butt.

"Owowowow..."

Sailor Nocturnus

Pamina was glad to have made it to the ledge, but it became apparent she couldn't stay there for long--not if they were going to move the entire group through the tomb. This really wasn't what she had in mind when she agreed to help... but since she had volunteered, she couldn't back down now! It scared her that she couldn't see whatever was on the other side of the ledge, but she couldn't see any other options.

The small girl carefully slid her body over the edge of the ledge, gripping with her fingers and dangling her legs down as far as she could to lessen the drop... and let go.

Shortly after the two girls started to argue about who should climb up first Kiyoko got tired of it and went to the rocks to reach the opening. Did they really have the time to argue about such pointless things?

The opening was so straitening - even more than the small square room they entered at the beginning - Kiyoko felt queasy. She turned around, looking for a further - and hopefully larger - room. However, she only looked into the thick darkness.What might be behind this opening? Kiyoko wasn't afraid of darkness - but she wasn't a fan of it either.

One after another she saw the other girls going to the other side of the opening and jumping down. According to their comments it wasn't very pleasant down there. But on the other hand... what should she do? There was no other way. With mixed feelings she moved towards the darkness until she finally was right in front of the ledge. She breathed in and out, three times, and tried to focus. You can do that, she said to herself and eventually jumped down.

Ineas was the last to climb the wall, trying to reach the opening before the entire area flooded. She panicked since the water was at her neck now. There was no way she would be able to make it. Ineas turned and went back the way the friends had originally come. She went back to the room with the Levers and carefully crossed the brittle flooring that should have gave out if the wrong lever combination was pulled.


"I'll protect the entrance!" She shouted behind her.  


This was now the last and final room. There were no passages or doors leading out of this one. As the girls moved about, small lights lit from the age old candles that sat on small shelves around the stone room. Some water dripped into the new room, but it wasn't much. it would take some time before the previous room would drain out and allow the girls to return back to the surface to join Inea. On the far end laid an older stone on the floor with some words carved into it. 

Stone Tablet wrote:

"_ _ _ _ lies the _ _ _ _ Sto_ _. O_ _y those wo_t_y by _roving you_ _ _ _ _ may aqu_ir_ it. 

Some of the letters were worn away by age. Above this stone on the ceiling hung what looked like a dry rotted box, but a strong energy hummed about it. Pamina reached up to touch it, but quickly pulled her hand away as the energy radiating from it slightly burned her hand.

Task: To be completed by 5/28 11pm EST 
Fill in the missing letters to complete the phrase.
If someone guesses before the task deadline, I will move on with the event. (Note: if this happens and not everyone got to post, then you will NOT be penalized with a missed task

Sailor Nocturnus

Pamina glanced down at the letters, rubbing her singed hand. She furrowed her brow and tried to work through the phrase.

"Here lies the... Life Stone. Only those worthy by proving you...something... may acquire it."

She turned to the others. "What do you think?"

Thank goodness she landed on her feet. Her ankles hurt a bit - due to the hard impact - but it was still better than landing on her butt as was the case with the girl with the odango-hair. Kiyoko reached her hand for the girl to help her with getting up.
 
“Yeah, sounds good to me,” she said as the young girl tried to decipher the words on the stone. Slowly she walked towards her, looking over her shoulder and trying to decipher left word. “Well, it seems to be a short word,” she said soberly. “Like five or six letters.”
 
Only those worthy by proving you…, she recalled to her mind.
Kiyoko looked back to the box the young girl tried to touch a few moments ago. She couldn’t open it. Something barred her from opening it… We need to prove that we’re worthy – somehow.
Kiyoko thought for quite a while, hoping for a brainwave. However, nothing came to her mind. “There are hundreds of words with five letters,” she muttered.
 
“I’m sure it’s some kind of ethical value,” she said at the end.
Kiyoko’s eyes went back to the box. “What if I use my ‘Bane Crasher’?,” she suggested, looking at the other girls. “If there’s no bane, then you should be able to open it, right?”

Sailor Nocturnus

Pamina looked at the taller girl when she suggested using some kind of attack on the box. The dark-haired child examined it, maintaining a safe distance this time, and made a nervous gesture.

"I'm worried about damaging it," she replied. "If it contains the Life Stone we need... But if everyone else thinks that's a good idea, then okay I guess."

She examined the letters again, looking at the smudged spaces.

"Maybe 'yourself' is the last word?"