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"O-Oh no!" Balder watched the poor thing fall to the ground, and his first instinct was to immediately scoop it up into his arms. Poor, poor… 

“‘Teepo’? Is that your name?”

"I’m so sorry." He sighed, a tone of remorse filling his voice. "Please forgive me. I am lost in this place… I had no intention of harming either of you. Are you alright as well, miss?"

"I'm fine, sir." After all, the guy they had been aiming for had run off. No point in worrying about that now--not when there seemed to be someone much friendlier before them.

"Not at all’ I wasn’t paying attention. I’m glad you’re alright".

        The offer of help would save her, admittedly. A glance at the bags dangling from the hand still by her side provoked a sheepish laugh. “Guess I got a little over-zealous. The spirit’s thick in the air, so it must have gotten to me.

Are you sure it’s alright? Thank you though”.

Ordinarily, she’d have felt guilty over charging the girl with the task; an arm was already preoccupied with her doll, but she’d offered. Not to mention it would offer the opportunity to stick around and strike up conversation.

To lighten the load, she passed two of those balanced by the aforementioned arm over. “Is that alright? Let me know if I need to organize them better.

I’m very grateful for you help, please let me know how I can thank you. Oh, my name’s Misaki. It’s a pleasure to meet you”.

She nodded eagerly. "Mhm, it's fine!"

Elize was quick to step closer and accept the bags passed to her, pausing only briefly to set her doll just at the top of one of them. That would make it a bit easier, for the moment. Small as she was, the bags weren't so much that she couldn't handle it. "Ah... yes, I've got it."

Then she finally offered another friendly smile. Despite a rocky start in the city, it was nice to keep bumping into nice people instead. "Nice to meet you, Misaki! I'm Elize." Her head tilted a little to the doll, too, before he could claim to be forgotten. "And that's Teepo."

Bundled in a thick coat, it was a struggle to filter through the bustling streets ahead of the approaching holiday; with all the celebrations taking place across the city. Flakes of snow frittering down from the overcast sky layered itself upon every surface available, crunching underneath her thick boots.

Chilled fingers hooked themselves over the handles of the plastic bags dangling either side, nestled within were a variety of items; among them presents, a few decorations for the shack she called home in Alpha, just the basics for now, while she worked to figure out something suitable to purchase that the friends she’d made since arriving would like.

         It was strange, really, to be facing the reality of celebrating something so universal in a foreign city for the first time, away from family and those she was more familiar with. From the pocket of her coat, she fetched her phone, nestled her chin into the scarf loosely wrapped around her neck and draped over her shoulders.

Tapping away at a new text in the open thread, her concentration on what was ahead (now that the streets were a little less clogged) diminished and brought back only by the soft thump of another body in front, sending her back a step.

Elize's own apology at bumping into a stranger on the street was cut short when the older did so first. The child blinked for a moment, then nodded, lips curved into a small smile.

"Yes, I'm fine. I should have been more careful, too."

Her gaze slipped to the bags being toted, though, and a hand lifted thoughtfully to her chin. True, this was a stranger before her, but...she seemed nice.

"Maybe... I could help with those? I'm not doing anything, and there are a lot.."

{ ✂ } — Three was used to being drowsy enough to collapse wherever she stood, and for that simple fall to turn into hours of rest. This usually was brought on by hours spent awake making multitudes of dolls or playing with the plethora of them she already possessed. Others termed it an obsession, but to her, it was just something she enjoyed. And given her curious nature, it was only natural she find herself devoting hours to improving her craft. It wasn’t her fault they didn’t understand it.

               Falling once more, this time in an unfamiliar place, she had something more to focus on. Her inquisitive nature found itself transferred from the abnormal city to the petite girl now standing before her… or, more specifically, what she was holding. The purple-hued toy couldn’t have been that large; the girl clinging to it was young and slight. She didn’t seem capable of lugging around weighty objects. Three would have dwelled upon the air of the younger girl for longer had the doll not particularly captivated her; however, it did.

               How did it talk so well? Three had managed to create dolls that could talk before, but something about this puppet was radically different from anything she’d been able to construct in the past. Moving was easy for her living soldiers, as was speech. Although it was difficult to implement using human minds, it was possible. But a doll that could process a conversation and remain to some degree obedient was beyond her capabilities. After knitting her eyebrows together in thought to figure out what the difference was, she determined asking was easier than straining herself from afar, however fun it may be for her.

               Three completely ignored the young girl’s own inquiry and began to vocalize her own. Now that her interest was piqued, she couldn’t keep herself from doing so. ❝How did you get it to speak like that? To respond?❞ She propped herself up and lifted her head to look at the other, as she couldn’t with her head pressed against the pavement. ❝I’ve never seen anything like that before.❞

It was impossible for Elize not to realize the woman's eyes were on her stuffed companion. She had long gotten used to him drawing attention, usually for all the wrong reasons. Had he said something out of place? Was he ruder than she'd thought? Maybe...

The question, in itself, wasn't even odd to her. The trouble was, even she didn't entirely understand how it worked. She hesitated a moment, but eventually shook her head.

"I don't really know how it works... but Teepo responds to my thoughts, somehow..." Having not made the booster, the exact mechanics were a mystery, and even that tether didn't entirely make sense to her.

Still, she held him out for the woman to get a better look. If she was just curious, then what was the harm?

"If I'm thinking something, sometimes he..."

Right on cue, the pink and purple toy opened his mouth to speak, as energetic as ever.

"It seems like all of us are connected to one another, but I don’t quite get it. Given that not all of us know one another, whoever is behind this seems to have done it arbitrarily, but why do so in the first place?"

He sighed as he studied the string around his wrist and the mark beside it, but his breath caught in his throat as the mark suddenly changed, forming an arrow that point off into the darkness to the right of them.

"Look closely at the mark on your hands… is it possible it’s trying to tell us where to go to get out here?"

"It's... kind of like a test, right?" That was, honestly, the only conclusion she could draw from their odd circumstances. Being presented with a challenge while having set conditions... what else would it be? Though why they were being tested, she couldn't begin to wonder.

Instead, she eyed her hand again. Blink, blink. When did an arrow get there? "Mm... It's the only clue we have right now, so..." She glanced to the rest of their small party. "What do you guys think?"

Jude placed his hand on the cold stone of the wall and frowned as he looked up to the darkened ceiling. With little to go on, he felt at something of a loss, but he knew in his mind there wasn’t really time to sit around and contemplate things for too long. Though he couldn’t see them, he could sense there were things other than them in that place. Perhaps they were people or perhaps they were something else; either way, his instincts told him not to linger.

"How about we get moving. We can talk as we walk. But feel free to stop if anything’s hurting. I don’t have many of my artes left, but I can still heal and provide basic attention. Elize, did your artes get sealed in this place, too?"

So they would have to fight... that thought made her small smile fade almost immediately. Bad enough she had been stripped of her abilities, Jude didn't seem to far any better.

"Yes...let's go." A nod of agreement, and she was more than ready to follow along once someone chose to take the lead. She was in no condition to do so herself. "I don't want to stay here too long..." Scary as the rest of the city already was, something about this place felt ten times worse, if not more.

Jude's question, directed at her, made her shift uncertainly from one foot to the other, and clutch Teepo closer yet when she finally nodded. "I can only heal a little right now... Teepo can't even fly anymore."

On the plus side, at least said doll was keeping its big mouth shut for the time being.

"But it'll be okay!" She bounced a bit suddenly when she piped up again. The pep talk was more for herself, probably, being down about the situation wouldn't help, right? "Even big monsters don't stand a chance against Jude."

"I agree that all this was more than a little sudden, but it doesn’t seem like there’s anything we can do about it. We’ll just have to head for the center, like the mark says."

Idly, he put a comforting hand on Elize’s shoulder. He’d fortunately missed Teepo’s commentary on his own appearance, but took a definite notice of the young mage’s. Not that he wasn’t used to it, but it was different seeing her back in her old traveling clothes. But the time to question something like that wasn’t now, even though he didn’t know when—or if—that time might actually come.

"None of you are hurt, right? Looks like the worst that’s happened is all of us getting spooked." He spared another glance at wolf standing near him. "Although I should probably try to take a look at your head later, just to be safe."

That said, part of her was tempted to join Brian in petting their furry friend. Perhaps later, once they were somewhere safer. For now, her head faintly nodded at Jude's question. She was definitely okay, fears aside.

"This place seems scary, but... I wonder what we'll find at the center." Given her experiences in the city so far, her hopes weren't high on that one. But it did appear that they didn't have much other choice.

So, in the spirit of cooperation, she turned to more properly face their apparent companions. "I'm Elize..." She remembered catching Brian's introduction, so her eyes swept to the talking wolf. "What should we call you?"

The initial drop, as eerily calm as it was, had been the most terrifying part of it all. Wandering through is underground how had been unsettling enough, but to suddenly have a sinkhole appear under him threw it firmly into unacceptable territory. Of course, he didn’t come to this mindset until he’d put his back to the too-tall wall next to him and he stood staring at the non-descript mark that hovered over his hand. Being taken by surprise yet again was the last thing he needed at the moment.

Watching the thing explain the situation he’d been thrown into did nothing to alleviate his confusion or growing uneasiness. Nothing about this made any sort of sense, but in the short time he’d been wandering the streets of the Hive, he’d come to find out that things of that nature were the order of the day. Taking a cursory glance around, he figured he had no choice but to accept it for the moment: there was no way to escape except the play along, no matter how much he didn’t care for it.

With a sigh, Jude pushed himself off the wall and peered around him, finally taking notice of something the mark had mentioned:

"Ariadne’s Thread will lead you through the labyrinth, but not you alone."

The duel meaning of those words hit him hard—and the warning after even harder—when he saw a rather familiar face among his new group of peers.

"What do they mean, 'fight' our way through? They took away all of my spirit artes!"

The doll was the first to pipe up in her stead, and this time, she didn't bother to reprimand him. It was the simple truth.

A familiar voice nearby momentarily tore her from those thoughts, however, eyes wide and blinking at the sound of her name. She had vaguely noticed others were nearby, partly thanks to the warning, but the last thing she had expected was to recognize any of them.

"...Jude?" She blinked for another second or so, then didn't waste any time in running over to him. For better or worse, their new predicament had been briefly forgotten. She very nearly dove in to hug him, but stopped just short of him instead. "When did you get here...?"

{ ✂ } — To one who knew her, it would seem as if nothing had changed. Although the lumbering gait and the outright refusal to hold her head up might signify depression or dread in others, this bearing was altogether normal for Three. From the lazy, rolling movements as she walked, down to the snick, snick of the dull scissors she was running through her chaotic hair, every single thing about her being at this moment was a common occurrence. 

               She seemed hardly fazed by the fact that she’d been ripped right out of her late home in the Land of Forests and stripped of the powers of song she possessed. She truly wasn’t fazed at all— the beautiful intoner was intrigued above all else. Things had been getting boring lately, and although it was somewhat disappointing to abandon any current pursuits, she needed… something else. A different environment to explore. Different types of beings to make into different types of things, to test, to probe, and attempt making once more. And of course, different things to learn. All the better, she supposed, if she learned new and unique avenues for making her special dolls.

               How difficult it was going to be… To live without her scissors. Her beautiful, beautiful scissors for making lovely, lovely dolls.

               Momentarily pausing her constant scissor-snicking to yawn slightly, it seems as if she becomes aware of a dawning exhaustion. Mid-stride (if, indeed, it can be called a stride), and without any speech, she begins to descend before one standing in front of her; sprawling, once again, with her usual lack of regard.

Somehow, it was only fitting that the moment she stepped away from the denser crowds, she found herself in another unusual situation; practically at her feet, a woman had laid on the ground... was she okay?

"Excuse me, Miss...?"

The girl stepped just a little closer, leaning over the stranger to peer down at her. As it was, she honestly couldn't make heads or tails of what was happening. She looked unharmed, so why, then?

"Are you okay?"

No sooner had she asked, when the doll in her arms decided to chime in.

"Yeah, what gives? People gotta walk here, you know."

Welcome to the hive, Elize!

You will be housed in apartment d-4.

You will retain the ability to utilize pixie circle up to three times per day. You will also be given a wooden staff and teepo, but the latter will be unable to float for now.

Enjoy your stay!