[b]Dandy![/b]

You try to pull yourself up again. You fail. Again. Based on the way that this vast bog is rushing past you on its way through the hole that the snake made, on the way it’s pummeling you and making serenity and peace very difficult... well, you’re running out of air faster than you were expecting.

Though that’s not the only reason you’re panicking and letting the air trickle out of you as your heart keeps jumping like an Askaian on a hot tin roof: it’s because you took a leap trusting Adila would catch you, and she’s nowhere to be seen. Spots thrown behind your closed lids. You trusted she wouldn’t lose, and... well, look where that got you. Tangled up in roots and drowning as a bunch of muddy water rushes past you too slow to do anything useful at all.

That girl! She’s got you coming and going. She thinks she’s too big to fit and she’s letting that scare her off from finding her place, and she can’t pick between you and an actual wild devil...

So what?

The thought’s surprising. You dig your fingers around the roots and try to slow your heart despite the torrent all around you.

Because you could even share her with a Devil if it meant getting to see her right now. Even if she couldn’t save you... you don’t want to go alone. You don’t want her to worry for the rest of her life, moping over whether you’d gone into the light mad at her.

And that’s a want big enough to keep the last bit of breath between your teeth, even as the roaring in your ears drowns out everything else. It’s a want you’d dig yourself out of your own grave to follow, see if you don’t.

***

[b]Adila![/b]

There’s... lots of water. It’s pouring! It’s making a mess. You were covered in the mess. Dandy was covered in mess too.

Dandy.

Dandelion.

You’re a guard dog, aren’t you, Adila? You’re supposed to protect. You’re supposed to be a good dog.

If you can’t help Dandelion... you need to bring someone else to help her. Someone you can trust. Pick a princess and then go swim up that deluge!

***

[b]Kyouko![/b]

You’re pretty sure you’re not supposed to be doing this. For one thing, a cheerleader cheers! She doesn’t do the thing worth cheering about! That’s just common sense. You’re a trophy, something to be won and shown off, something to encourage real princesses.

But Kazelia’s so innocent and silly, and if someone doesn’t take care of her, who will? She’s so smart and so dumb all at the same time, and you’d rather be kicked off the team than see her fail. Not here. She’s got to win.

So you keep fighting. You’re used to weighted sleeves and hidden darts and ambushes with silk ropes, not shoving pom-poms in faces and doing acrobatic split kicks, but that’s Konkon spirit! Never give up! Invent new rules! Score!!

Then you see the glimmer of red from Kazelia’s bag, and know that she just needs a moment longer— just a moment— and that the gardeners won’t even give her that.

So you howl the terrifying war-yelp of your people and throw yourself bodily into several of them, feeling the prick of stingers all over as you buy Kazelia the time she needs to be the hero you know she is.

And then... well, even if she doesn’t save you, that’s okay. Everybody knows that the cheerleader gets saved eventually. You’re... the, the... you’re... distress, the, um...

The world slides into blackness far too early.

***

[b]Kathelia![/b]

Kyouko’s scream, ending in a gargled whimper, jolts you back to your senses for a moment. There. You wrap your fingers around Red and feel a surge of clear-headedness. Of strength. Of power.

The minute you drop this— which is troublesome, given that it’s in your dominant hand— you’ll crash. Hard. But right now, you feel... you feel like a nerd given strength for the first time.

For as long as you hold Red, you can access its associated power. It recognizes you as one of Alina’s friends, and will help you get it back to her. But where is she, anyway?

***

[b]Rita![/b]

You race nimbly through the foliage. You can’t stop, you have to dance, you have to get to the end so you can dance for the mighty Queen of all these lands and win your heart’s desire, once you can remember what it is you wish for most, and right now your dance is a wild, vaulting Rowani Rain-stomp, and you let out a yawp far bigger than your dainty frame. Then, through the trees, as you race past, you see something very curious.

There’s a cage, and it has legs. It’s marching up towards the garden, and all this overgrown shrubbery is bending out of its way. Inside is a figure in a sheer shirt, all tangled up in vines and scarf-leaves. You catch eyes for a moment, and she surges up, pressing herself against the thorny bars and letting out a muffled, desperate cry. Then the foliage between you thickens, obscuring her from view once more.

You’re so distracted you almost pirouette into chain-vines.

She seemed so [i]familiar...[/i]

And so [i]beautiful...[/i]

Perhaps she is your heart’s desire, revealed for but a moment by the labyrinth. Yes! Yes, that must be it! She is your noble mistress, who you wish to be reunited with once more!

Thus fortified, you dash on nimbly, untouched by weed or thorn.

***

[b]Mittens![/b]

You slump. Rita’s gone again. And the curse has run [i]deep[/i] with her. When you looked in her eyes... she seemed confused. Did she even remember you?

You are being slowly marched through this dangerous forest by a walking cage of thorns and branches. You’ve been beaten. If Rita won’t come back... if Kazelia decides she’s got the best chance at winning... well, you’ll be stuck. Here. A failure. Like always.

What’s it like, knowing you were never going to win?