Amber + Action

[braavado]

| characters | Everyone!

| date/time | 3/26, afternoon

| location | second floor

| rating | PG?

| summary | mingling, solving the riddle, and possibly collecting the "artifacts"


[Some time around noon, Korra's nervous, orange-toned face appears in the amber slices.]

So, everyone's heard about the riddle by now, right? We've had some time to think about it now, and I just thought it might be easier if we all meet up in one place to toss around some possible answers.

[It's been a while since she's addressed a crowd like this. And even if she can't technically see them, she knows they can see her. Korra wets her lips nervously, then seems to fight back her uncertainty with determination.]

Most of us are strangers to each other, but we should try to work together, look out for each other, at least until we figure out how to get back home. It'll...make our stay here more bearable.

Oh, and if anyone got injuries from those ant soldiers or anything else, I can have a look at them.

(ooc: this is a discussion post, so feel free to jump in anywhere!)

Comments

SOLVING THE RIDDLE

[braavado]

[braavado]

[Korra sticks close to the large water basin at first, just in case anyone needs a healing, but eventually she makes her way over to the mushroom tables to join the discussion.]

So...I guess we should start with the first part. "A diamond from the clouds". Any ideas?

[millionyearsentence]

[ Wyrden's totally alien to these things, but she could at least hazard a guess. ]

No idea what a diamond is, but clouds probably mean something from the sky. We might need to fly there...?

[braavado]

It's a type of gemstone... I think it's kind of clear?

[Korra doesn't even care about jewellery or anything, so any details on that are pretty hazy. She frowns.]

Only problem is, if we need to fly high up, the mist isn't going to let us go very far.

[nullity]

[ he perks up when korra arrives, but soon tilts his head when they begin. ] What's a diamond? They're in the sky?

[braavado]

[Korra smiles at him, dropping into the chair beside him.]

It's a kind of gem. You know, the stones people like to put in jewellery? I think it's the clear-looking one.

[but they definitely don't come from clouds. Riddles, man. Their captors couldn't have just given them more straightforward instructions?]

[sirpisspot]

[Arno was here to give it his best gosh darn shot and take this completely seriously. He sat around a mushroom table and seemed to be muddled in thoughts.]

"A diamond" could mean something that just shines that's from the sky. So, we have...stars, raindrops...

[survivorsyndrome]

Snow. Or ice.

[Kaoru was just kind of hanging out on the far side of the table, elbows propped up on his knees and being his antisocial self. He was... trying to be helpful? Maybe.]

[magicsprice]

[Gold had come in more to observe and offer occasional opinion and at this there's a small nod from him.]

Indeed. You also could count a snow flake, though I'm inclined to think of a rain drop myself. Rain drops are like diamonds from the clouds. The answer to riddles often aren't literal, so I doubt we're actually looking for an actual gemstone.

[gempathic]

It sounds like we should probably start out trying the small stuff first. Space is pretty far out there- even for people who are big enough to work a spaceship. I'm not sure how we'd be able to get a star without a lot of planning. [ Understatement of the millennium. Stars were Steven's first bet when it came to that line, but if something easier ends up working, it would be better not to waste all that time and work building a rocket or something. Last time he was in a homemade spaceship, it didn't end well. ] Oh! Unless you wanna try using the star on my shirt. Because I'd give it to a good cause.

[ And that is... absolutely a legitimate offer. He got a free fairy shirt when he got here, so it's not like he'd be missing out. Someone's apparently in magical tree jail. Helping out is imperative. ]

[gempathic]

[ Steven's always on board for a little bit of riddle-solving. He's not always good at it, or not that he's ever been able to tell, but if there's one thing he normally has on his side, it's creativity.

Plus he's a real sucker for group efforts and the power of teamwork. It makes being homesick a lot easier to handle. That said, he's also confused about more things outside of the riddle itself than he'd really considered. Like where it came from and the person it's talking about. What's up with the timing. What a "mad eater" is, because pretty much everyone's been pretty calm about food since he got here.

You know, the basics.

The more he thinks about it, the more it seems like this isn't so much a mysterious magical tree as it is a magical tree that's keeping a lot of secrets. He's not big on secrets. And while he's happy to join discussions here and there on the riddle front itself, Steven also already had his primary priority decided by the time he got to the meeting place. ]

I wonder how long the servant of the Tree's been captured. [ And where she... is, exactly. ] She must be really upset about it.

[braavado]

[She can tell he's upset about this, and that makes Korra want to reach out to him. A pause follows that thought as she realizes this is exactly the kind of thinking that had kept her from trying to get to know people for the last few years. Korra breathes in, then moves closer to Steven, putting a hand on his shoulder.]

Seems like there's a lot more about this tree we don't know. [Not that they knew a lot to begin with.] It might take us a little while, but we'll figure this out.

[gempathic]

... yeah. There are a lot of great people around here, so I bet we can handle all the mysteries together. [ Even not knowing anybody here the way that he knows everybody in Beach City. Maybe he was getting too familiar with all that familiarity, though. It's a new opportunity to learn and make some friends. Pearl would be pretty excited about the learning, probably. ] And if we set her free, she can probably tell us more about where we are. I just hope she's okay. Last time I helped set someone free, she kind of tried to borrow the ocean.

[sirpisspot]

[This boy goes from silly to serious very fast. A few things looked like they hit him on the noggin and he's begun to internalize it.

It actually did cause Arno to look aside and think a bit about it.

What if there was someone here, trapped and made a slave? That didn't go well by Arno so if there's truly something sinister like that underneath the fairy tale guise, they will answer to Arno's sword and perhaps to whatever this boy could do.

He assumed the boy could do something.]

If there is someone trapped, we will mount a rescue. Which is why we need to find more information.

[greatrage]

[dumb riddles. Eren doesn't like them. Diamonds from the heavens? Autumn sacrifice?]

Do we even have to bother with all this? Why don't we just kill the spider and knock down the webs? How hard can it be?

[survivorsyndrome]

[RIDDLES ARE DUMB.]

No one's been able to break the webs.

But I agree about the spider. If it's a threat, it needs to be dealt with.

Re: SOLVING THE RIDDLE

[monster_san]

"So we seem to agree that the diamond from the clouds is some form of precipitation," said Fuu, tapping her finger with one chin. "The next line is about 'autumn's sacrifice'... a fallen leaf, perhaps?"

[braavado]

"That could be it," Korra agreed. "It's starting to snow outside, so it's probably changing seasons here. If it isn't a leaf, then it could be anything that stops growing in the winter."

Re: SOLVING THE RIDDLE

[alley_kit]

[Everyone seems to be discussing the first two parts of the riddle, so those seem to be well in hand.]

What about the third part, though? What's 'the mad eater'? There's that big animal that's been nibbling at the plants around the tree, but it just seems to be minding its own business. I don't see how it could be 'mad'.

COLLECTING THE ARTIFACTS

[braavado]

That diamond part

[survivorsyndrome]

Even at his best, Kaoru wasn't really a team player, and if there was any way he could sort of secretly sort of help and not actually getting clocked by someone while doing it, he would absolutely go for it.

In this case, after the snow began to fall, he'd go outside to collect a small pile of it. If he was wrong, whatever. He'd come back for the damp basket later, so stop judging him Professor Layton.

He'd better be right, though. It was cold out here, goddammit.

[braavado]

Eventually Korra joined him outside, her new puzzle-solving friends having come to the same conclusion as him. This time, she wore a dark green parka over her usual shirt, though she didn't bother pulling the hood up. As she stepped outside, Korra tilted her head back and watched the snow fall for a moment. Then she caught sight of Kaoru and shoved back that pang of homesickness she'd felt just now.

"Hey," Korra said, moving toward him. "Looks like you figured out the first part, too."

The tuft of hair, post squirrel petting expedition.

[alley_kit]

Kit peeked around the edge of the exit to the branch with the mirror. She wasn't sure she should be doing this but... well the squirrels fit the description of 'mad eaters' better than any of the other creatures they'd encountered so far, and if she was wrong, it wouldn't hurt anything.

Still, she found herself lingering by the doorway, hand in one of her pouches, clutching the tuft of reddish fur inside it. Should she go and offer it in front of the mirror? And would there even be any indication whether she'd brought the right thing or not?

Old leaves and things

[monster_san]

Fuu still had doubts about this whole thing. She really hoped the "servant" wasn't the spider (or... spider-scorpion...) and that it referred to some being they hadn't yet seen, but who was to say that it wouldn't be something even more dangerous? Or that it would do anything at all?

And if their captors (she had taken to thinking of them as such, since they had not shown themselves apart from this) would only contact them through a riddle, it didn't bode well for their trustworthiness. But it also appeared to be the only way forward at the moment. So she had taken an old leaf and brought it here, with a little help in case danger became immediately apparent.

[survivorsyndrome]

Kaoru accompanied Fuu, quiet as usual and armed with his usual assortment of weaponry, never knew when you'd need to stab a giant lizard, after all. Just like old times, solving weird and mysterious puzzles.

"Do you like squirrel?"