[closed] And when the ball's over, we go to the feast--

[roleholders]

[ Characters ] Adachi Tohru, Altair Ibn'La-Ahad, I-no, Larxene, Oz Vessalius, Reno... Tir Mc Dohl eventually
[ Location ] The Rose Maze, Castle Hearts
[ Date/Time ] The Day of the Ball, 10:30 PM
[ Warning ] violence and murder
[ Content ] This dance displeases Us. Off with your heads.

[Everything is ready. Everything has been prepared for. A

Comments

[distortsify]

[What those twins said to him made him anxious and nervous. If what they said was true, Oz kept his guard up. He held onto the golden pocket watch that he kept around in his pocket. He held it tightly in case he had to use his shifter.

The grass was pretty and being inside the ball felt forever even though it was fun enough. He kept his eyes open and walked through the maze and turned a corner.]

[nowheresman]

[Right into Adachi.]

Wha- hey! Watch it!

[distortsify]

I-I'm sorry.

[Oz was about to move to the side, but--]

Wait, are you going to the center too?

[nowheresman]

[Small, is the first thing Adachi thinks. Barely past childhood. He winces a little, perhaps at the thought, perhaps at the obvious question.]

Everyone here is, kid. I just got split up from some other guy heading the same way. This place isn't above messing with us, though.

[distortsify]

[Oz reminded himself of the letter. Meet new friends. Hm.]

You should still have your guard up. My name's Oz. We can go together.

[nowheresman]

...Adachi.

[And because he wouldn't be himself without a comment like this-]

Can't say I'm looking forward to fighting with a bunch of kids again, but guess you're better than nothing.

[He looks up. The walls in this area of the maze aren't as tall as they were when he was with Altair. Perhaps because this kid couldn't scale vertical surfaces like Batman (which was a good thing; one was enough).]

You know the way?

[distortsify]

W-We're really going to fight? [something he hates the most. he holds onto his pocketwatch tighter]

Eheh, no. It shouldn't be too hard to navigate through here. I hope.

[nowheresman]

Shouldn't be too hard to...?

It's a maze. It's built to be hard to navigate.

[With a long-suffering sigh, Adachi turns from him, heading down the path that neither he nor Oz seemed to come from. It leads, predictably, to another corridor of hedges, but they don't really have much to go on in the first place. Something about this kid's...sheer cheeriness was grating on him anyway. (What do -you- have to be so happy about anyway?)]

Whatever - just come on, then. Lag a little and the ground'll shoot a wall up right in front of you, or something.

[distortsify]

I-I'm coming. [Oz followed right behind the older man and his smile left him. He was kinda observing the hedges a little.]

What kind of maze is this? I feel bad for leaving my friends behinds.

[nowheresman]

...Your friends didn't come?

[distortsify]

I mean, they're at the ball still.

[nowheresman]

...Huh. Meaning they didn't get an invitation. You know what that means, right?

[Like he'd miss an opportunity to rain on someone's parade.]

Your friends are on another side. You're going to have to off 'em someday.

[distortsify]

What?! How would you know that? [he's going to deny everything]

[nowheresman]

You can read, can't you, kid? The invitation said, that we'd be meeting our own.

[distortsify]

That doesn't mean I'm going to hurt them.

[nowheresman]

No? That's what a war means, though.

Not sure they'd tolerate defecting all that much. 'Off with your head', and everything.