Mittens winces when her team is announced. Three spoiled brats? That stings almost as much as the lineup itself. She pans around the room, trying to project calm but mostly (she's pretty sure) just looking like she's pouting. But could you blame her? If you handed her a list of names from all across Hyperborea and told her to make the worst possible Princess Games team for herself, she's not sure she could really do any worse than this. Honestly! Let her do this 1v3v3! You could even put her on a team with Eupheria! These would both be better than... this. Whiskers. Rivers. Whatever!

On the plus side, it seemed like Eupheria was a fan of [i]Heist![/i], which was Mittens' favorite Princess Game as well. Or, well, no. Her [i]favorite[/i] was Gymnastic Jousting, but that was a solo game and Mittens didn't see any jousting platforms or pools for them to be hiding in anyway. That left [i]Hesit![/i], which was still pretty ok as far as silver linings went. 

The idea of the game was simple in theory, but deliciously creative in execution. Every team on the field represented a Kingdom (usually a made-up one to keep any bad blood down, but for the official Princess Games you obviously represented your own home), and each Kingdom had its own set of Treasures they needed to keep safe. To win, you had to infiltrate the opposing Kingdoms across a variety of fun obstacles and terrains, find their Treasures, and safely bring them back to your own Treasury to add their value to your total. Whoever had the highest value Treasury when the timer ran out was the winner. 

[i]Heist![/i] had three positions you could play, and had to declare who was what at the beginning of the match, but there was no limit on how many players you could assign to a given role, and no rule anywhere saying you needed to have every role represented. Princesses were the actual thieves, whose job it was to go in and collect Treasures, but other than self defense and basic sabotage they weren't allowed to fight. Knights existed to capture Princesses with traps and cunning, but they were honor-bound to return any Treasure they captured in the line of duty to its proper Kingdom. Queens had free reign to fight and take whatever they wished, but couldn't leave the confines of their specific Kingdom's zone. No player on any team could hold more than one Treasure at a time, and the traditional rule was that you had to work your way up a Treasury's score card: you had to secure all the lowest value Treasure before you could attempt a Crown Jewel play. 

All-Princess teams were popular, but Mittens knew it wasn't the best way to play. The ideal setup, as far as she was concerned, was solo-Princess, multi-Queen, but that only worked when everybody wasn't doing it, so you had to be willing to adapt your strategy to whatever was popular at the time, and... well. It didn't really matter. She didn't want to play today. 

Mittens prances across the field to her team's designated zone, feeling uncomfortable and self conscious about the bounce in her step the entire way. Azora Howl, and the woman who waged a war against Ourania. Adila's namesake. The intelligence, apparently, behind the fiasco in the defense of the Bazaar that crippled the Snake-Husband and made Adila a nervous wreck for weeks afterwards. She sighs, and looks across the space to where the dragon-turned-puppy was standing. She turned and stared up at Eupheria in her elaborate Konkon wedding dress. For some reason, it makes her heart beat a little bit lighter in her chest, and her ears wiggle hopefully on top of her head. 

She turns her attention back to the statuesque starry-eyed woman standing rigidly in front of her, and forces her face into a smile. 

"You're very lucky," she says with poise and then immediately starts fumbling for the right words, "To... hm. To have the love and admiration of so many special people. I think there's still hope, don't you? For a happy ending to this, I mean."

Yes, Mittens, there is hope. If your Adila has taught her predecessor anything at all, there's hope. Her tail flicks happily back and forth, even as her shoulders slump forward in misery.

[Speak Softly: [b]13[/b]
-What does Adila I want, and how could I help her get it?
-What should I be wary of when dealing with her?
-What can Adila I tell me about the feelings in her heart?]