Like taking candy from a...corpse. [Cambie!]

[Rhindeer]

"Stuck? Whatcha mean stuck?" Briar said, head swiveling sharply in Jocelyn's direction. He couldn't be saying what she thought he was saying...

He couldn't possibly be implying they were trapped, could he? Briar's stomach gave a queasy little twist. Nope! Nope, nope, nope! This was so not on.

With a roll of her eyes and a scoff, she climbed to her feet and dusted herself off. "Don't be so dramatic. We're fiiine, gods! Just listen to you, freaking out over skeletons, going on about being left behind, whining about ghosts, wah, wah, wah. You're such a downer. No one's going to die here. At least, I'm not. If you wanna curl up and cry, though, be my guest, but I won't wait around."

And with her shoulders rolled back with all the bravado she could muster, Briar pressed a gloved hand to the wall and started to walk a circuit of the room, carrying her lightstone with her. And the results, as Jocelyn had already confirmed, were distressing. Solid walls. Solid walls everywhere! She felt along them, feeling for depressions, hidden panels, anything! Even grooves for climbing. Nothing.

"Oh shit...shiiiiiiit...really? Nothing? Oh come on, stupid old dead guys! Throw me a fucking bone here--ow!"

She found herself face down in the sand then, having tripped over something...that turned out to be a femur. Briar kicked at it, and didn't notice the odd way it stuck, like it was attached to something deep in the sand. "Oh. Ha ha. Super."

[Cambie]

Jocelyn quietly followed Briar as she made her rounds, inspecting every nook and cranny of their little prison. A hollow feeling occupied his gut most of the way, and though he tried to occupy himself with the magical patterns emanating from her little lightstone (which still fascinated him), for once he was less curious and more panicking.

When Briar finally tripped over that bone protruding from the sand, he could not help but let out a little wince before sitting down in the sand beside her. Turning his head upwards, he observed the little hole through which he'd fallen. Was it the same hole she had fallen through? Or did she enter through some secret passage? Did a way out even exist?

He groaned and kicked up some of the sand in irritation. That protruding femur brought a repressed irritation bubbling from inside his chest. With a scowl, he said, "Great... now what do we do? Maybe we should ask this skeleton for a way out. OH WAIT. HE GOT STUCK HERE TOO."

[Rhindeer]

"Oh, quit your bitching!" Briar shot back, kicking sand at him.

"And stop acting like this is somehow my fault! Like, maybe you should've asked one of your murderous ghost buddies where the exit is! Or that rock monster thing! I gave you the chance! You should've made friends! Golden opportunity I gave you back there, wasted!" With a dramatic sigh, Briar flopped over onto her back, then sat up and scowled again at the femur.

Stupid thing, didn't even give her the satisfaction of knocking over when she kicked it! The nerve of it all.

Except it lacked nerves. Heh.

"Anyway, you're such a smartie pants, use your goddamn brain or something. I swear it's like I have to do everything around here! Lead the way, make all the decisions, save your goddamned life!" She gave the femur another frustrated kick, but still it didn't budge. Briar's brow furrowed, irritation building, and she kicked it again. Then again. "What the fuck?"

[Cambie]

Jocelyn scowled through his magical veil and turned away, seething. In the back of his mind, he decided that if an exit presented itself to him, he would leave her here. See how she dealt with it, stuck in this underground tomb for the rest of her short life.

When she kicked the bone again and again, to no avail, he finally turned back to face her. "It's stuck. Why don't you dig it out? Then maybe you can put all that energy to use, and I won't have to hear you talking again."

He stopped.

What was it stuck on?

[Rhindeer]

"Fine! I think I will!" Briar snapped back, glaring at Jocelyn. "See, there it is again! It's Briar doing everything yet again. At least I'll be doing something! Unlike you, who is doing nothing but kvetching!"

Grumbling, mood frayed from all this bad luck, Briar dug her gloved hands into the sand and started to dig. As much as she was railing on Jocelyn, he was just an easy target--a scapegoat for her frustration, because she didn't like feeling trapped or helpless. She had no one to blame but herself--but she wasn't about to blame herself.

So, Jocelyn took the heat instead!

"Useless, useless, useless man," she mumbled. "So stupid--wait."

...Why the hell was she digging, when there was a very obvious shortcut she could take?

Pausing, and feeling kind of stupid, Briar sat back on her knees and peeled off one of her gloves. She hated doing this; the bones were old, so no doubt this was going to be an unpleasant experience. But if this thing was weirdly stuck like this, maybe it was important? She pocketed the glove and then, with a deep breath to prepare herself, placed her bare hand on the bone--

And then her body seized, her breath catching in her throat as images flooded her mind, rapid-fire, and emotions that weren't her own filled her, snapshots of many lives, and deaths. It was unexpectedly intense, and too much for her to handle all at once, shocking her like a jolt of electricity--only all emotional, all memory.

Letting out a sigh, her eyes rolled back and she slumped over.

[Cambie]

Jocelyn watched her get to work with a scowl, before turning away. It was one thing to be trapped in an ancient death pit. It was an entirely different thing to be trapped with the most annoying person in existence.

A hundred thoughts raced through his mind, all of them nasty retorts and insults to her. It took a lot for him to resort to that kind of thing, but she'd pissed him off so badly that now would've been the perfect time to lay it on.

He turned back to face her, a snarky remark at the ready -- and then his jaw dropped.

The swirls of magic coming from her were absolutely beautiful as she grabbed the bone. It was like a flash of intricately patterned light to him. He could've seen it, even without the magical scarf around his face. There were familiar patterns in the arcana, but also something unique. He couldn't tell right off the bat what her magic did, and that absolutely excited him.

Unfortunately, it faded just as quickly as it'd illuminated his blind vision. When she slumped to the sand, Jocelyn let out a soft "Gods!" before stumbling forward, cradling her prone form in his lap.

[Rhindeer]

A few seconds later, Briar's eyes fluttered open, and the first thing she saw when she looked up was Jocelyn. It took a few seconds of staring before his image cleared through the haze of disorientation, but finally her eyes narrowed with recognition.

"Uh...?"

Her strength came back a few seconds later, and her senses, and with a sudden jolt and vivid blush, she shoved at him and scrambled away. "What the fuck are you doing?! Didn't I say don't touch me? Cripes, you don't listen for shit, do you? And while I'm passed out! Like that's not creepy or anything!"

[Cambie]

For a moment, he almost had a look of concern on his face. But then she scrambled away in disgust, leaving him dumbfounded. Was she serious.

"You... you..."

Then he bristled.

"You fainted! What am I supposed to do, just leave you be? What if something had happened?"

He groaned and pressed a hand to his head. She'd probably have some sort of excuse or retort anyway, so why did he bother? "Y'know what? My mistake. Next time you faint, I'll let you sleep with these skeletons, princess."

[Rhindeer]

...Wait.

What?

Briar actually froze and blinked several times, slowly registering his words through the disoriented haze that came from, well...a mental assault and subsequent fainting. Her natural inclination was suspicion, and assuming the worst of people, but what he shouted back at her made her do a double-take.

"Wait just a minute," she said, rubbing the side of her head in an effort to clear it. "You're not...you're not saying you were worried about me, are you, blindie?"

[Cambie]

"Yeah, I was. But not anymore I'm not!" he retorted, before climbing to his feet and stomping away. Maybe occupying himself with trying to find an escape would help him calm down. He wanted to kick a skull that lay nearby, but decided against it. He didn't need anymore bad luck.

[Rhindeer]

"Yeah, but you were," Briar said, sitting back on her hands and beaming a smug grin at him as he stomped away. "And I don't blame you! Considering how amazing I am, and the fact that I figured out how to get us out of this room."

[Cambie]

Jocelyn had just placed his hands on the wall, looking for some sort of secret trap door button, when that news came. He whirled back around, the look of disgust gone from his face.

"You found the way out? Well let's get the hell out of here!"

[Rhindeer]

"Sure!" Briar said, her smile widening.

"After you tell me how amazing I am, and apologize for being rude."

[Cambie]

Jocelyn's jaw dropped.

"Are you serious? We're not playing games here, let's just go."

[Rhindeer]

Briar crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin like an empress. "Nope. Not until you say it."

[Cambie]

"You have got to be kidding me..." Jocelyn mumbled under his breath in exasperation. This girl would be the death of him. Of both of them, more like.

"Fine. I'm sorry for being rude to you earlier, and you are the most amazing person I have ever met. Happy?"

He took a step toward her. "Now let's get the hell out of this tomb."

[Rhindeer]

Briar watched Jocelyn, her smile growing at his words until she was all out beaming. It didn't sound sincere, but she didn't care about that, because it wasn't about that at all. She just knew he hated it so it was fun making him do it.

Finally, she let out a pleased sigh. "The most amazing person you've ever met? Me? Oh! You're just too kind, Jossy, too kind! I already knew that, of course, but it's still a very sweet sentiment! You can't see it, but I'm blushing."

Rising to her knees and grabbing up her glove, she slipped it back onto her hand. "Alright, let's get the fuck out of here! C'mere, you, I need you for this."

She pulled out her dagger and held it out to him, handle first. "See that little indentation in the bone? No? Well, duh. You can feel it though, I'm sure! Cut yourself and stick the blood in that, and it'll activate some shit and then we can get out of here."

[Cambie]

Jocelyn gave her an incredulous look, though it likely didn't have the intended effect as his eyes were hidden firmly behind his Cloth. He looked down at the knife in his hand, then knelt beside the little protruding bone. There it was, the tiny indentation.

And there it was, a tiny spark of magical energy still trapped in the buried object. How had he not noticed it before? It must've been her. SHe'd made him mad enough to ignore his surroundings.

With a grim look, he placed the dagger in the palm of his hand. Even as he drew it across it with a wince, he asked, "What's it supposed to do?"

Closing his hand into a throbbing fist, a few droplets of blood slipped between his fingers and onto the bone.

[Rhindeer]

"Iunno," Briar said with a shrug as she watched the blood drip into the indentation. "Some shit. Just watch and see! Oh, wait. I guess don't watch or see. Whatever."

"Some shit" was exactly what it did, more or less. The blood fell into the groove, and then followed it all the way down, on a slow, spiral pattern around the bone, heedless of sand or other imperfections in its path. The instant the blood touched the surface, it glowed, faint but still there, and it seemed as though more blood stretched across the path than what had actually been deposited. Soon it wasn't just the blood that was glowing, but strange white symbols etched into the surface not by carving, but by magic, invisible until activated.

And soon those symbols repeated on the far wall, lighting up the dark room.

A great grinding noise came from the wall and the room shuddered, sending sand raining down on them, and the grinding increased until the sound was almost unbearable before the wall shuddered again--and then lifted, slowly, rock scraping against rock. Sand poured into the room immediately, obviously having been pressed against the opposite side for who knows how long.

Grimacing as more sand got into her boots, Briar slugged Jocelyn in the shoulder. "See? I'm a genius, what did I tell you!"

[Cambie]

Jocelyn was too busy marveling at the dormant magic sprung to life to hear much of what Briar had said, but her punch knocked him back to reality. He scowled at her, fully prepared to retort angrily, but stopped just short.

After all she had just figured out the escape.

"Good job," he admitted begrudgingly, wiping his bloody hand on his dusty pants. "Now let's get out of here."