Nascent Goddess Quest

Winning votes:
[w] Sneak off down the hallway into the darkness
-[w] Drop flaming torch
--[w] Hide the mask and flask

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Part of you sorta found that fun and wants to do it again. The bigger part of you wants to run away before you mess something up and get found out. You decide to go with that part and sneak off further down the hallway. You can't seem to extinguish your torch though, and it'll give you away for sure if you try to hide in the darkness with a flaming torch in hand. So just before the door closes as the dancers file out you throw it back in. With all the commotion no one notices.

With the most obvious object on you dealt with you file into the back of the group of dancers, slowly working your way to the very end of the line. You pass by a lot of dancers, each of their masks and garbs is slightly different from the others, just like their dances themselves. For such subtle details, they really went to a lot for effort. And probably not just for the dancers, it makes sense to assume all the performers get taken care of like this.

If you hadn't been told this was such a bad place, after seeing all of this, you'd probably like it here. Well, if you hadn't been told to be wary you probably wouldn't have checked this out in the first place, so that doesn't really work. Well, whatever, you know what you mean.

Just a few more slow steps and everyone's in front of you. Now that you're at the back of the line, as soon as you're sure no one is looking, you break off from the group and slink down the hallway, keeping close to the middle where the small lights reach least. Then you stop and wait for a bit to see if you were noticed, not like you'll be able to outrun an army of dancers if you got caught. While you wait you make sure the flask is properly close and stash it and the mask in your ba-...right, you left your bag with Mira, Tobias and Liam. Looks like you'd just have to hold on to the mask, at least the flask can be attached to your belt. While you do that the footsteps slowly fade away. Then the disembodied voice starts to say something that you can't really make out.

"Give...hand...fire dancers!" Followed by a faint round of applause.

You kinda feel bad about what you're doing; not because of the show-people themselves, there's obviously something up with them; but because the others must be worried about you, especially Tobias. You get the feeling you'll be getting at least one earful when you meet up again. Well, that can't be helped now, you made your choice.

Shaking your head you keep going down the hallway, there has to be something at the other end, what's the point otherwise? Up until this moment you'd never truly realised just how mind numbingly BORING walking down long empty hallways is. At this point you swear your eyes are starting to play tricks on you just so there's something there other than more hallway. The most interesting thing that happens is that the lights get every so slightly dimmer as you continue to walk.

After what feels like an eternity, but was really only five minutes at most, you finally reach the end of the hallway. Why does the hallway end five minutes of walking away from the other doors? Why is the space between them so empty? Are you way more irked by this than you should be? These are questions the world probably isn't ready for the answers to.

Tapping your head to get yourself out of your boredom induced craziness, you realise there are two doors here. They don't have any keyholes you can see, nor any other method of seeing what's on the other side. Luckily, you have ears, which you press against each door. Through the door on the right you hear...nothing, wait no, there's the sound of a precariously placed stack of papers losing the battle against gravity and fluttering to the ground. The one on the left has faint metallic scratching, and you think you can make out a voice shouting from the far end of the room.

"Don't mess up the timing this time around, you were two seconds too slow before, any longer and the illusion would have been lost, and so would you! And where's that new girl?! We need her for the next performance! Someone go find her and get her sorry behind here before I need to kick it!"

Well, they seem like a pleasant person...still, maybe you could pretend to be this new girl and take a look around, if she hasn't shown up yet she probably won't halfway through her shift. Granted you have no clue what you'd be doing for the next performance, but you can probably figure it out.

Wait a minute, you almost missed it, but there's a lever here too. Honestly the only reason you saw it is because you almost hit your head on it backing away from the door. In the poor lighting it's almost invisible. It looks like there's a yellow striped rectangle above it with something written inside. But you can't read the writing with the almost turned off lights being your only light source. Is it instructions? A warning? You can't tell, still curiosity exists to be satisfied.

'Curiosity killed the cat,' the rational part of you says.

'Satisfaction brought it back,' argues back the impulsive side.

...It's honestly kind of sad that your biggest internal debate so far is over whether you should pull a lever or not, even if your memories don't go back too far.

What'll you do?
[] Enter the door on the right and investigate
[] Enter the door on the left and be the 'new girl'
[] Pull the lever!
[] Wait and see if the 'new girl' shows up

Winning votes:
[w] Pull the lever!

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It might be almost pitch black, and you might have no clue as to whether this will be something good or bad, but you're flipping this lever. Reaching your hands up you feel the metal in your hands, simply begging to be pulled down and achieve its purpose. Worry not lever, for you will achieve your dreams...it is very possible your boredom induced madness has yet to pass. But you surely won't be bored once you pull this lever! So, with all the might you can muster, you pull it down!

As soon as you do a puff of tiny papers is blown into your face as a very soft "Hooray!" sound. The papers have almost no force behind them, but the surprise from having a bunch of cut up paper blasted into you sends you stumbling backwards. You lean back against the wall opposite the lever.

How could you? I trusted you lever! You were my friend! Your treachery will not go unpunished you, uh, treacherous lever!

Steeling your resolve you march back to the lever, it having sprung back to its upright position. You give it a firm and professional tug downwards, it no longer deserves your sympathies. Just like before a spray of paper is jettisoned out, again accompanied by a faint "Hooray!" sound. Undeterred by nothing changing you pull again, and again, and again. Each and every time nothing but another puff of paper and "Hooray!" is your result, at this point there's a small pile of tiny papers at your feet. You're starting to think you qualify for the definition of insanity, you choose to blame the incredibly boring hallway for how you've latched on to this lever and its mystery.

As you're pulling you hears the fire dancers make their way back to their room and another act begin. Eventually, you resolve to pull the lever only five more times before giving up and doing something else. Pull number one, well, at this point it's way above number one, but still. Pull number one rewards you with yet another blast of papers and fanfare, adding to the now very sizeable pile at your feet. You glare and pull again. This time you decide that just pulling down isn't working, maybe something else? You pull forward and the lever is pulled straight out of the wall. Success! Revenge is sweet you inanimate traitor!

W-wait. The ground is shaking. Is it an earthquake? Is the lever exacting its own revenge? This isn't the time for silly lever games any more Eshani! Wait...this was never the time to play with a lever. Why did you do that? There's no time to think, you have to act fast it looks like the floor is rising. Apparently there's no time to act either though, because before you know it you're on your back and the room you're in is completely different to that hallway.

The first thing you notice about the new room is how creepy it looks. You thought the hallway was eerie, but this takes the cake. Dark red candlelight sparsely brightens the room just enough to see shapes that remain gloomily hidden by darkness.

On the wall to your left there sits a strange symbol surrounded by more candles. Seven golden blade-like figures jut out from a heptagon in the center in a counterclockwise direction, with each 'blade' having a hole along the middle of its edge that forms what looks like a hook.
Its presence is...almost comforting, but at the same time being in the same room as it is making you uncomfortable. It's a very odd feeling and you really don't want to feel it for any longer than you need to.

To your left on the other hand is a small workbench. Atop it sits a lone regular candle, illuminating the desk, but not much else. A small pile of golden coins as well as...is that a gun? It is! Tobias never told you much about guns other than the fact they're unwieldy with all the ammunition and powder you need to carry, along with their dreadfully slow reloading speeds and low accuracy compared to weapons like bows or magic. Needless to say it didn't seem like guns were very useful weapons, though if you did manage to hit someone they were apparently devastating.

The desk also has a little button with what looks like a hallway on it, does it have something to do with the hallway you walked though? The button is really unclear about what it does, it's a very poorly designed button.

Other than the table and symbol you manage to catch sight of a small vent along the far wall, it's honestly a miracle, with how terrible the lighting is you almost walked right past it! The vent is a little bigger than you if you crouch, so you could try to go through it and find a way back. You should really start to get back too, you'd rather not make your friends more worried than they already are, and you also have no idea how much longer the show will be going on.

Other than the vent though, how would you leave? What would happen if someone too big to fit got stuck here? As you raise your hand to your chin to think you hit yourself with the lever. Oh right, the wall on this side has the spot for the lever you pulled out now, you could try to get back the same was you got here maybe? Though...if the hallway only leads back to the stage it might be a little awkward trying to get back now, but hey, maybe they'll be distracted again.

You can choose as many of the options other than the ones that lead to you leaving, only one of those.
[] Put the lever back and try to get back to the hallway (leave)
[] Crawl through the vent and try to get back to the stage (leave)
[] Take the gold
[] Take the gun
[] Examine the symbol more closely
[] Push the button