[b]TEAM RELAXATION![/b]

You'd think the party would be winding down now. Some of the staff have already said their good-mornings and slunk away to find their beds (or, as is often the case at the Chrysanthemum, a friend's bed, by invitation). But the keen mind of Eclair Espoir will start putting together a brief timeline, whirring in the back of her head:

[list][*]An Aestivali woman as soft as sin, almost ready to burst out of her corseted dress, gets a ping from her tablet. She checks it, and her face loses its jovial cast. She whispers to the friends on either side of her.
[*]They whisper to others. Those who are whispered to pass the whisper onwards; it ripples throughout the room.
[*]A beefy young Kel bartender whispers in Mayzie's ear.
[*]Two gangly twins start putting up thick black curtains over the windows. They continue over the door.
[*]Mayzie fishes a mask out of her bag and whispers to you: "Ecl-- Mystery, you still have your mask on you, don't you?"
[*]"And Yuki, there should be one in your apron pocket, put it on, put it on--"[/list]

And that's when the lights go out and there is a moment, just a moment, of the deep darkness that was before the world was formed.

[hr]
[b]TEAM QUEST[/b]

Alcideo has a [i]piercing[/i] whistle. The kind that cuts through creepy dirges.

He's waving to you, Hazel. He's got a tablet bag slung over one shoulder, a cut on his forehead from running into some whip-thin branch, and he's pointing upwards.

Up the staircase of moldering stone.

Up into the branches, where there is a dragon-sized door.

Up to the two pale torches which are not any color you can put your finger on, and the figures in shadow who hold them.

There's your path for scampering, when the time comes.

Can you feel anyone's breath on the back of your throat yet?