Slight of Hand

[Winters-Feather]

Jazbel did not protest as the woman slipped out of his hands. Instead, he carefully tailed her towards the darts. He waved in embarresement as Ellarrah suggested such a crude game as 'strip darts'.
"Not in this company," he said between gritted teeth under the harsh stares of several stander bys and the loud laughter of others.
Watch what you're doing, he thought with a grimance as he watched the woman recklessly fling the dart. Jazbel flinched as it sunk into the wall by the board.
At this rate, she's going to kill somebody, he thought.

"You're too careless, " he scolded, though the smirk on his face contradicted his serious tone.
Jazbel took up a dart with a flurish as he balanced it between his fingers. The dare was a harmless one, so why not take it up? The man narrowed his eyes as he concentrated on the dart board.  He positioned himself as he prepared to throw the thing. If near by folk were amused by Ellarrah, they were even more so by Jazbel's antics.  The shot was going to be beautiful. He knew it, everybody else knew it. Here was a man who was going to show his worth.... !

At a near by table was a group of gamblers. A particular tall, broad shouldered, and man was losing a match. He was very angry, and very drunk. After losing the last of his money, he angerly stood up and began to stumble towards the bar....

"Watch and learn, m'lady," Jazbel said as with a flick of the wrist, he sent the dart flying....

... right into the other man's arm.

---

Jazbel grumbled as he collapsed into his side of the bed with a rag held against his nose.
Tonight had NOT been in his favor in the slightest.





OOC: You were saying? :P

[visualspice]

"Awww, don't worry about it, Jazzy," Ellarrah comforted as she drunkenly sat beside him on the bed.  "We've been in worse tiffs before, eh?"  She patted him upon the shoulder.  "But just think, had that drunken idiot not've been in the way, you woulda had a perfect shot." She giggled, fingers tickling up his chest before she moved to stand and stretched her hands high above her head.
"But now it does put us in a bind, considerin' I wanted to have a little fun this evening," she said with a sigh, but then she felt something odd in her pocket and reached into it.

She had already forgotten she had pick-pocketed her own body, Jazbel and had the puzzle box stored away in her dress.

"Say, we still need to figure out what this thing is," Ellarrah stated, poking at it with a finger as she walked over, holding it against a light as she examined it's coppery surface and all of the recesses and grooves aligning it.

"It looks as if these pieces could be shifted," she stated, her fingers fining one alignment and with a click, her lips twitched into a small smile as she watched hte little metal ball move.
"Ah!" her eyes got all sparkly. "It moves!" She happily threw herself back onto the bed, lying on her back, red hair a mess around her as she continued to play with it.  "So it's some sort of puzzle box! Let's see if I can open it!" But after another click, the puzzle spat at her-
with a puff of powdery whiteness that sooted her face.

Ellarrah, whose eyes were currently closed, made a soured face before angrily tossing the ball across the room to where it hit off hte opposing wall.
"Ugh! Stupid puzzle ball!" and began to furiously wipe at her eye to get the stupid dust off of her face, ignoring the fact she was lifting up the ends of her dress to do so.


OOC: Your post still makes me laugh!
Oh, Jazzy <3

X3

[Winters-Feather]

"Mmfph," Jazbel sullenly replied as Ellarrah told him not to worry.
How could he not worry? His nose, for crying out loud! A broken nose would hinder some of his disguises. Plus, he was van about his looks; a broken nose wouldn't do.
I'll have to set it, he thought miserably though the man couldn't help but to crack a lustful smile as his companion's finger trailed on his chest. It was just too bad.
Now all I want is sleep.

The man sighed as he sat up, grimacing as he took away the rag and placed his fingertips at the top of his nose, pressing firmly. Jazbel grunted, but exhaled, bringing the bottom of his hands together as he began to adjust his nose. Instantly, his vision began to blur as pain shot throughout his body. Jazbel's breath became labored as he continued, staring intensely at the wall, as he had no mirror. The man was so deep in his concentration, that he did not notice Ellarrah's tinkering with the puzzle until she tossed it.

The man turned around, his eyes widening in horror at the sight of the puzzle.
Jazbel jumped to his feet, but immediately regretted it. His face turned purple, his expression turning dark.
"You stupid wretch! What. Have. You. Done?!" he hissed, livid.
He helped this woman escape, healed her wounds, and even borrowed her a dress! How dare she mess with things that weren't hers to play with?! Furious, Jazbel stumbled towards the puzzle box. He almost never lost his temper. However, he was tired, blood was spewing out of his nose. The night had been a disaster, and Ellarrah (whom he didn't know, not really) had carelessly abused the very item he was risking his life for.

Jazbel knelt on the ground and gently picked up the box. To his relief, Ellarrah's foolhardiness didn't damage the puzzle. The man's shoulders slumped with relief as he turned the thing around, examining it from every angle.
"You have to be careful with these things," he said sternly to Ellarrah, his glance almost apologetic.
"It's not yours to play with, nor is it mine."
Yet there was something alluring about the round puzzle. Every bit of logic  inside of Jazbel was telling him to leave the puzzle alone, to wrap it up and keep it safe. Yet despite this, his fingers caressed the symbols as he quietly turned panels.
Click.  Click. Click.

His body was possessed, it had to be. Jazbel didn't know the combination, as did Ellarrah. Yet they both had gotten bits of the gears to work. Jazbel gasped as it opened, his mind snapping back in order. No, this wasn't supposed to be happening! But as he tried to close it shut, the orb seemed to grow warmer. Not hot, but instead felt warm like a living being- Jazbel swore he could feel a pulse from within. It began to glow...

[visualspice]

"Don't call me the wretch when that damn thing spat dust into am eyes!" Ellarrah snapped as she watched Jazbel dive after the damn thing. She made a face at his comment of being careful and she just waved it off. "I was playin' fair, until the damn thing decided it wanted to -" but she didn't finish her sentence as she watched him intently, his fingers moving across the puzzle.  "Say, you're pretty good at that but you might want to watch out. That thing spits."

But then when it began to glow, Ellarrah gave a yell.
"Oh my god, it has magics!" and before she knew it, her stupid fear of mages kicked in and she gave a yell, field-goal kicking the thing right out of Jazbel's hand as it went sailing through the air, then crashed out the window.

"God, I hate magical things!" Ellarrah said, gripping at her chest as he felt it tightening as she tried to calm herself down from hyper ventilating.   With an angry growl she shook her fist about, "And here we are, fiddling with it! What if we just got cursed!? Gads-balls!" she dropped onto the bed.  "Who would want to marry a cursed woman if that puzzle ball just spat a hundred years of bad luck onto my face!?"

Clearly, her life was in peril.


OOC: He's SO gonna want to kill her, ha ha.
She is an act first, think later kinda gal <3
also, a bit simple minded when dealing with magics, ah ha ha!

[Winters-Feather]

Before Jazbel could comprehend what was going on, Ellarrah snatched the puzzle right out of his hands. The man's mouth ran dry as he reached out for it, panicking.
"No!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing?! Do you want to get us both killed? Lass, if-"
But whatever protest he wanted to express, it was too late. Jazbel watched in utter hopelessness as the woman tossed the thing out the window.

He turned towards her with a pair of new eyes.
I hope you ARE cursed, Jazbel thought, darkly.
In place of the cunning and seductive lady was a mere girl, a vapid woman who couldn't think. He had never felt so infuriated in his entire life. How could anyone... how could she?! Jazbel's right hand curled into a fist. Oh, but if only she were a man!

He'd just about had it.
Jazbel pointed towards the window. He tried to speak, but words failed him.
"You're paying for that," he flatly said.
And then, Madam, you're leaving.
To hell with his dress. Taking the only key with him, Jazbel marched out of the room, and locked the woman inside. He didn't want her scampering off with his things.

The man ventured out into the cold and wet rain as he made his way towards the spot where Ellarrah had chunked the puzzle out. He found it in the mud, still glowing softly. Jazbel picked it up.   Mist began to flow out of it, just a little. Jazbel watched anxiously as some of it passed through him, though it seemingly had no effect.
Weird, Jazbel thought as he quickly concealed the thing in his shirt.
Just what was this thing?
He quickly and quietly made his way back inside the inn towards his room.
Jazbel didn't want to have to climb through the window; he didn't want to repeat Ellarrah's earlier mistake.

[visualspice]

"What do you mean by that?" Ellarrah spat, and before she knew it...

"Hey!" she dashed after him, only to have the door slam in her face. She flinched, heard him lock the door and gasped. "Hey!" she tried the knob. "Hey!" She pounded on the door. "Unlock this door, Jazbel!" she shouted. "I hate confined spaces! You'd better get this thing unlocked or I swear to Ansgar you'll be regretting it!" she fumed.  But no matter what she did, the door would not open and she began to panic, thinking her bad luck had already began and began to yell again, pounding on the door. "Jazzy! Open up!"  But when he didn't come back, panic gripped her to the core, and suddenly-


BOOM


The door fell open and there stood Ellarrah, breathing heavily.

"You!" she took one look at Jazbel, realizing he was only a few feet away and stormed over the door and socked him hard across his face.
"Don't you ever lock me in there again!" Her hands were clenched into angry fists. "I hate confined spaces! I hate them!"

And it was then she noticed the stupid glowing puzzle in his shirt and growled, leaped after it and wrestled it from his clutches.
"All of this nonsense for a stupid ball!?" She growled at him, her face burning with anger and booze."I ought to smash it!" she said, rising the thing up above her head as if to throw it again.

The ball flashed once, it's light flicking over Ellarrah, and then turning her into a momentary silhouette of pure white...


then Ellarrah was gone....


The ball dropped to the ground, tinkering as it rolled to settle against Jaz's side.

OOC: dun dun dun!

[Winters-Feather]

With that punch, Jazbel howled in pained and collapsed against the wall, his vision dizzy. He barely could hear Ellarrah screeching at him. Something about being closed into spaces.  He wondered vaguely if that woman ever thought about anybody other than herself. He was already injured, for pity's sake. He moaned as she picked it up again, lunging forward with whatever energy he had in him. Jazbel was desperate. He could NOT let her ruin things for him!
"NO. Put that bloody thing down," he ordered sternly. "Just.. calm down, would you? For one moment?"

IT didn't seem as if Jazbel was going to get that moment. In her indignant fit, Ellarrah had vanished in a flash of light. Stunned, Jazbel warily glared at the ball, in silence. He backed up as far as he could against the wall. Truthfully, he was almost glad that Ellarrah was finally gone. She was blabbering too much in her drunkard state for his liking, and was a complete dolt, besides.  But, still... Puzzles vanishing people just wasn't natural! Just what sort of merchandise were they harboring, anyway?

Jazbel scowled. No, he was going to deliver to his client. It was Ellarrah's fault for getting all mixed up into this nonsense, her fault! The man turned his attention back to his nose and finished fixing it, shouting as he did so.  He could barely see past a foot in front of him, but the puzzle lingered in his vision. The man tried not to scowl, again. It hurt too much. Using his foot, he kicked it towards his hand. Damn that foolish woman, but he couldn't just... let this all slide.
"Blast it all," he cursed as he reached out for a puzzle.

Blinding white light surrounded him, and then  he, too, had disappeared, the puzzle rolling until it  hit the bed post.

[visualspice]

At first, all Ellarrah was saw was emptiness.  Then thin threads of light framed massive blocks all around her that towered upwards and onwards and all around.  It was a dizzying sight, and as she backed away to behold the unique cleverness of it all, she found herself backing up into a wall.

Light pulsated from it as she made a noise and spun around, only to find a long wall that seemed to stretch for eternity. It's surface was reflective, and she saw her own faded image before her, though it was wavering, as if the wall had been made of liquid.  Blinking, she approached, lightly touching it as she watched her own reflection ripple again.

"Angsar's breath..." she backed away, staring in awe at her reflection.  But still..
this strange place gave her the creeps, no matter how awesome looking it was and that's when she saw him-
Jazbel was on the other side of the mirror-like wall.  Though he appeared much larger, as if he was looking right into her.  He was a giant! of all the things...

Her eyes lit up.
"Jaz!" she called out, beating her fist against the wall and sending ripples of colors coursing across the wall that separated them... It appeared futile though- could he even hear her? Could he even see her? And why was he so tall!? And she so small!?

Then...
the world began to shift around her.

The great big pieces of block began to move, resort themselves together, before settling loudly together with a big crunch as they made a new display.

Ellarrah dropped what she was doing onto to stare at the vastness of the puzzle like world before her.

"Dear God, where am I?" she whispered.  "It's as if I'm inside that damned-" that's when it occurred to her that she WAS inside that damned, cursed puzzle ball!


OOC: I hope this makes sense XD
she's trapped inside, she could see Jazbel OUTSIDE (looking at the ball) before he was sucked in, and then she just happened to make the connection that perhaps she's stuck inside the damn thing so yeah...
dump him in as you like <3


I figure it would be fun if the puzzle could move like tetris pieces and they have to figure out a way to navigate through it in order to escape or something..
X3

[Winters-Feather]

The moving of the walls had knocked out Jazbel.
The man awoke in darkness minutes later, his  groans echoing in his surroundings.
Where am I?
Groggily, he sat up against what apparently was a wall, etched with runes in old tongues that he both recognized and didn't, but  none he was able to read. Jazbel began to wrinkle his nose, but immediately regretted that decision.
Oh, right, he thought as he sullenly cupped his hands around his nose.
Ellarrah. Curse that woman, he had to find her.
"Ellarrah," he choked as he pressed himself against the wall and slowly edged his way up.

He looked up. The... ceiling, if he could call it that looked oddly familiar. Like wood. And.. was that a chair? With his things on it? The man's eyes widened in wonder.
"By Kia's light...." he muttered.
Something at the corner of his eye caught his attention. Jazbel turned towards his right, and
gave out a startled shout of surprise. A skull and bones, shrouded in dust laid before him.
We've admitted ourselves into a deadly prison, he thought, panicking.
"Ellarrah!" he said, his voice louder this time.

Jazbel quickly scurried down the hall. Thankfully, it wasn't that long. A wall blocked his way.
Damnit, he thought as his hands traced the runes.
There has to be a door, a mechanism of some sort... There HAS to be.
Of course, it didn't, but thankfully, there was.
As his finger touched a symbol, carved to look like the moon, it glowed as the runes began to shift. The walls began to rumble as they started to shift and move, again.

OOC: They have to find each other, first, mayhaps. mwahahahaha

[visualspice]

OOC: X3
I had this thought the outside world around them was cast off into a darkness, kinda like the nighttime sky, but was still visible- almost like the real world was behind a dark tinted glass.


IC:

When the world moved again, Ellarrah readied herself, fists ready as the walls swung around, moving...
and it was then, as a wall moved past her she noticed someone familiar and gave a start.
"Jazbel!?" her voice echoed around them, eyes meeting to his the very moment a massive block blocked their view, keeping them apart.  She threw herself at it, beating her fist upon the solid block wall and swore.

"Ugh!" her frustration echoed into the darkness around her as she backed away, staring up at the massive walls that surrounded her. "Jazbel?" she spoke his voice again, hesitantly approaching the wall that separated, resting a hand delicately upon it as she listened to see if he was, infact there, or, if her mind had been playing tricks on her.  THis place was crazy, and she wouldn't be surprised if it was making her mind go crazy!

[Winters-Feather]

OOC: Oh, okay. I feel like they're stuck in a dungeon of a particularly hard japanese rpg xD
IC:

Jazbel clung to a wall for his dear life as the walls began to shift. For a brief moment, he swore he had saw a shadow, and reached out for it.
Ellarrah!
Swiftly as the shadow came into his vision, so did a wall to separate the two. As all things settled, Jazbel tried to regain  his balance. The man's eyes scanned the new wall. To his dismay, it was smooth.
There's got to be a way out of here, he thought as he desperately looked around him.

Then there was that sound. Muffled, but close. Jazbel leaned against the smooth wall, pressing his ears against it. Then he heard it. His name! The man beamed. She was still alive, praise Kia!
"Ellarrah!" he said loudly in disbelief.
"M'lady! Look for a moon rune," he said, quickly, a plan formulating in his mind.
"The moon! Do you see it?"

[visualspice]

OOC: Lol-
Bwahahahahaha

IC:

At the sound of the voice on the other side her expression perked up.
"Jazzy!" she said, with much elation, then focused, listened quietly as she mentioned something about a moon.
"A moon rune?" Was he daft? But this whole world was, as she scrunched her face and began to look around.
"Everything looks the same. I'm surrounded by large, solid blocks!" She turned around a good few times, peering up at the ones steeping above them and felt herself growing dizzy as she leaned against a rock.
It was then she spotted a symbol, three blocks above her and blinked.

"I see something!" she said, and backed away, studying it.

"But this one has a star on it." She furrowed her brow.  That wasn't a moon.

[Winters-Feather]

Jazbel rubbed his temples at the sound of the woman's voice as a wave of relief swept over him.
Praise Kia, he thought as he pressed himself against the wall.
The man nodded at her question as he continued to look around his surroundings. There could be a symbol on his side, too.
"Yes, the moon! We're in a labyrinth, I think," he said, growing ecstatic.
The man decided to leave out the detail about the corpse- the woman was already afraid of confined spaces as it were. He didn't need her panicking.

"But there's a way out! You press the right runes, and the walls move!"
Jazbel frowned at her mention of a star. Well, that was odd. But if she said so...
"Can you reach it? Try pressing it," he suggested.

[visualspice]

Ellarrah made a face.
"It's pretty high up there!" she informed him, shouting through the rock as she eyed the thing.
"Maybe I could throw something at it?" she looked around, but most of the room was vacant, except for the giant, rock blocks.  Sighing, she shook her head.

"It's too far off the ground. I don't know if I could even reach it if I had something to throw at it."
Looking around, she ran a hand frustratedly through her hair.
"It's no use. The rune is just too far away, Jazzy."

It was then she noticed something in the far off corner and her eyes lit up.
There was a symbol, right at her level. ANd it was the symbol of the sun.
"Hey, I think I found somethin'!" she said, making her way over towards it. "It looks like..." Yes, she had been right. "It's the symbol of the sun."

[Winters-Feather]

Jazbel frowned, discouraged when Ellarrah mentioned the rune was too high.
"Damn," he cursed under his breath as his eyes continued to scan the surrounding walls.
There was nothing there. Jazbel looked into the depths of the newly formed corridor. Perhaps there was a rune somewhere down the way, though the man did not want to venture into that emptiness alone. Besides, what if he found a rune, but that only further separated him from Ellarrah?
Though there's  no guarantee that the one she was looking for won't,  Jazbel grimly reminded himself.

Jazbel's heart fell when Ellarrah gave up.
"It's okay," he replied.
He was disappointed, though he understood. There was hardly anything in this place to assist them. Jazbel was about to propose his new plan to search for another rune on his end of things, when Ellarrah brightly  exclaimed that she found another symbol.
"Then what are you waiting for, lass?" Jazbel replied.

[visualspice]

Ellarrah hesitated as she approached it.
"Well, what do you want me to do with the thing? Just ... push it or something?" Her lips sagged at the idea. "And how do we know these walls just won't..." she sighed. "Oh never mind, it's not as though we have a choice, now do we?"
Rubbing her hands together. "Here goes nothing."s he muttered, and moved forward, pressing her hand flat against the rune as the symbol lit up.

That's when the ground began to rumble.  Leaping away, Ellarrah braced herself as the wall ontop of her began to move. She made a scream, jumping out of the way just as it turned into another wall around her, snaking around and mish-mashing all of the blocks into another set of puzzle like mazes...

However, she still was not in the same location as Jazbel.
Cursing, she rose off the ground and sighed.

"It looks like just another configuration of the last maze. Blast it,"s he said, kicking a stone, and not realizing it was the moon rune.
The rune lit up, the floor reconfigured and she braced herself, when a wall behind her suddenly shoved her forward and before she knew it, she was yelping as she was forced ontop of Jazbel, her hair in his face as the two fell onto the ground.

[Winters-Feather]

OOC: LOL that poor man can't get a break, can he? Gonna break his back, she is XD Also i figured the wall was sort of like those of
IC:

"Yes!" Jazbel encouraged as Ellarrah asked what she was supposed to do with the symbol. The man crouched on the ground, ready to pounce out of the way of a moving wall if need be. Standing, so far, hadn't done him any good, but the man didn't want to be caught unaware on his arse, either.
"Come on," he muttered, offering up a prayer up to Kia that this was going to work.
Though despite experiencing the shift before, Jazbel knew that he was never going to get used to it. He yelled as the walls and ceiling moved, though his eyes remained fixed on the wall separating him and Ellarrah.

Then all stood still. Jazbel frowned.
"Ellarrah?" he shouted. "Oi! Elle!"
No response.
The woman was no where to be found.
Jazbel cursed as he ran a hand through his thinning purple hair. So his assumption had been wrong. Further, he had no idea where the hell she was.
Just brilliant, he thought as he examined the wall before him.

The man frowned. It was different from the ones, before. Vividly colored pictures along with a lettering more akin to modern Common was writ on the wall. The pictures seemed to tell a story of some prince from...
"Fell," Jazbel muttered in awe.

At that moment, the ceiling shook, and Jazbel was knocked to the ground. He cried out in  excruciating pain with tears forming at his eyes, it hurt that bad. However, his voice muffled by hair. Irritably, Jazbel gently pushed Ellarrah away, removing stray hairs from his mouth.
"My nose," he groaned. "My back."
However, Jazbel managed to let out a weak smile as he laid sprawled on the ground.
"Have a little more mercy on an old man, would you, Elle?"

[visualspice]

Groaning, Ellarrah picked her head up to realize just what had happened.
"Jazbel!" she screamed with delight, throwing her arms around him. "Never thought I'd be this glad to see ya. But where the hell are we? And what the hell is this thing? It's like we're stuck inside that blasted puzzle ball and now have to solve it from within."

Ellarrah made a face and moved to stand, offering Jazbel a hand as she tucked back some of her hand.
"Here, let me help the old man to his feet." She said with a playful smirk.
"Now, I need you in one piece, you know? We got to figure this thing out, and I hate to admit it, but I ain't exactly the smartest girl. I get too frustrated with puzzles and I was too impatient when I was in school."

Planting her hands to her hips she sighed.
"But I guess I can help you the best I can. So long as this place doens't start creeping in on us." She said, staring at the tall blocks above them that just seemed to hoover in the air."S he sighed again.
"Got any bright ideas, Jazzy?"

[Winters-Feather]

"Hi," Jazbel replied as the woman threw her arms around him.
His mobility limited, he patted her on the back, awkwardly.
"Told ya, it's a labyrth," he muttered, "A magical one, at that. Clearly."
The man took in a deep breath as Ellarrah moved to stand up. He was a man of a small frame, so though the woman wasn't weighty, she had still put a considerable amount of pressure on his lungs. He could finally breathe proper again, and Jazbel was thankful for it.
"Thanks," he muttered as he took her hand, ignoring her comment.

Jazbel stretched and rolled his shoulders as he listened to the woman talk. He gave a slight head tilt at the mention of her not being the sharpest. Well, he could see that, though Jazbel knew to hold his tongue. The man arched his brow at the mention of school. He had never attended, as he had lived his life forever on the road. Whatever he had learned he had picked up, somewhere. Jazbel nodded at Ellarrah's suggestion.

"At least we're together," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
His back still hurt something terrible, and he needed the momentary support.
"Well, we know now that celestial runes are what move the walls," he said, slowly.
"And to solve puzzles you need to get to the end of them. Only, there is no end to this place, is there? Maybe we have to get to,  the heart of this place, instead. The core."
He paused, gesturing towards the wall.
"Did they teach you to read old languages, by any chance? Anything about Fell, even?" he asked.

[visualspice]

"They only taught us the written tongue and writing, some brief history and math," Ellarrah said while scrunching her nose, but at the mention of the Fell, she paled.
"You.. you don't meant to think this is the Fell?" though a silly comment, she said it too late before she realized how ridiculous that must've sounded.
"Or, that you believe this is something from the Fell," her eyes narrowed as she surveyed the area around them and shivered.
"Either way, the idea gives me the creeps." she turned back to Jazbel. "Why you askin'? All I know about that place is it's infected with a wretched curse.  Seems the old folks back where I'm from love to tell tales about it to keep children from running amok outside during all hours of the night. Almost had me believing the damn Fell was an actual being more than a place..." she shivered at the idea, then turned to Jazbel.

"You.. don't honestly think this is linked to that cursed place, do you?" she appeared quite worry as she voiced her question.