[b]Mittens![/b]

"You understand [i]nothing[/i]," Adila I snaps back, and if you're cool, she's just been cleaved off an iceberg. "Her love is selfish, cloying, and possessive. There is nothing so foolish in all the world as to make one person your whole world, when love is meant for one's brothers and sisters in arms, one's family, and one's community. By love you fulfilled your duty to your people, [i]Cascade[/i], and by love you still struggle against Eupheria for the sake of your mother. If you were relying solely on your love for the Askaian, [i]you would have failed already.[/i]"

She stands, stiff and formal, glowering down at you. "And my duty is not to Eupheria. My duty is not to coddle her or take responsibility for her obsession. My duty is to the people of the Bazaar lost in this labyrinth, to the members of the Watch who follow my creed, and to all of Hyperborea. It has [i]always[/i] been to this world entire, you selfish, short-sighted, spoiled [i]child[/i]."

"Is it the stick wedged up your [i]butt[/i] that's causing you to say such nonsense?" Azora Howl delivers the line with the smug smile of someone who's sure her zinger is the wittiest thing that's ever been said, and it makes Adila I scowl and storm out of the tent, hands clenched into angry fists.

Well. There it is. There's one of the walls that stands between Eupheria and Adila I: Euphie sees people, Adila sees communities. When Eupheria looked at Adila, she saw the strong, stubborn, beautiful warrior. When Adila looked at Eupheria, she saw [i]one of my followers, who is part of my larger social circle.[/i] It's stupid and frustrating and... and it's the kind of worldview you cling to harder and harder when you worry that you're wrong. A shield to hold up to defend you from yourself more than others, especially when everyone else around you falls in love and you've never felt what they feel.

Has Adila I ever been [i]in love[/i]? Can she be [i]in love[/i] with someone the way you love Rita, the way Eupheria loves you? Or are her feelings of guilt and loss and stubborn pride what you might feel if you'd had to put down Jessamine?

***

[b]Adila![/b]

Brightball! The noble sport!

Dandy adjusts her sash, trying to make it look a little less like a feed bag, while Team Spankies come back out from the Winner's Tent. Azora and Alina are still holding hands, and Adila I is stalking out in front of them, walking like she intends to burn the court down. Eupheria deliberately doesn't look at her, but an ambulatory bit of turf still manages to trip Adila I over and she faceplants in the dirt. Oof. You are going to have to work very hard to hand Alina this win, even if she is one of the best Brightball players in Hyperborea!

"Now," Eupheria trills, taking a seat in mid-air, shoe dangling from her toes above your heads, "let the game begin!"

And with a snap of her fingers, each one of the hoops grows a plethora of legs and starts scampering away. Oh. Oh, boy. This game suddenly got a lot more unpredictable.

[Brightball is played with +Grace!]

***

[b]Hornet![/b]

The other princesses left you behind. They're all getting salves and amulets and preparing to face the heat of the Gulch, which might be a crack inside, but that seems like it'll be a pain, and how are they going to get everyone back out? They have to think about practical questions like this, after all. What's more likely is that the Wicked Queen's Nightmare Army is going to be waiting inside and they're going to bop the princesses over the head one by one as they squeeze through the sweltering crack in the dome. If you were in the Wicked Queen's slippers, that's what you'd do. And you'd have an Effacious Wrappinator to toss the princesses into, one that didn't have a tendency to keep wrapping until it broke down, because if you were the Wicked Queen, all your inventions would work just the way you wanted them to.

The trick, you consider, as you wheel the Ultimate Tunnel Digger up towards the dome, is going to be making sure the tunnel is just through the dome. As long as your Insurmountable Stop Button works properly, you should be able to stop the Digger from digging right through Hyperborea and into the void beyond Ouroboros. And though you haven't had time to test the Stop Button, in theory it should work to Stop just about anything!

You're going to show them all. You're going to [i]show[/i] them all. You're going to make a tunnel an entire host of Princesses could march an entire Bazaar's worth of civilians through, and it's not going to punch holes through anything it's not supposed to, and then Adila's going to feel so ashamed for ignoring her official friend, and she'll even maybe want to hang out with you even when she's not required to by contract. As long as the machine works. So it has to work. The Digger will dig and the Stop Button will stop, and you're going to save the day for once.

Yeah. For once.