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Petal was assaulted in the aftermath of the last challenge, Poly was taken, and Daniel was concussed after a kick from the party's most powerfully-legged slut.\n\nThere were a rising number of people in the audience who'd argue that last point of distinction was necessary.\n\nAt least their environment didn't change; there were worse environments in which to sit and worry about what horrible things were happening to their tragically good-intentioned friend, what horrible thing would happen to the group next, and who was going to be next on the potentially literal chopping block.\n\nBut, inevitably, it didn't last. With the abruptness had become the norm ever since the masterminds of the show had decided that their victims couldn't be trusted to press on under their own power, come the day of the next challenge the group's surroundings shifted almost without transition. From the manicured foliage of a fine garden, with its fresh air and comfy temperatures... to what might at first seem like another cave.\n\nIt might even have [i]been[/i] a cave, at one point! All signs pointed to their being underground after all, even if Pity, Petal, and Daniel were now in a torch-lit chamber walled in roughly cut stone blocks. But nobody with an ounce of fantasy experience would fail to recognize a dungeon - a [i]proper[/i] fantasy dungeon - when they saw one.\n\n\n[center][b][u] \t[/u][/b][/center]\n[color=#888a85][center][t]The Ninth Challenge[/t][/center][/color]\n\nOnly Daniel, Pity, and Petal however. [i]Connie[/i] had been separated from her friends. Still in sight of one another! But where the trio had a stone floor to stand on, Connie got metal. And cage bars. And a view of her friends across a not insignificant gap that, if she were to poke her head between the bars and glance down, dropped away to terminate in a yellow-orange glow was disconcertingly reminiscent of lava.\n\nWhatever else Connie might feel in that moment however, and despite everything might be said about her by the audience, Connie continued to prove that she was not, in fact, an idiot! Perhaps this, along with her being the only party member that none of the survivors had a grudge against, was the reason she had been put into the cage above the pit.\n\nLooking at the mechanism from which her cage was suspended, the clear presence of a bucket-counterweight on the other side of an assembly of ratchets and gears rather than a simple pulley, and the way her cage began, with a lurch, to [i]slowly[/i] descend into the pit? It was Connie that sussed the challenge, shouted at her friends that the three of them were supposed to be saving her using the counterweight.\n\n\nNo doubt there was a competitive element at play, but in the moment, all three challengers focused on saving Connie! Or at the very least realized their might be consequences for [i]not[/i] giving it their all, regardless of who had punted who across the campsite the other day. Soon, the chamber's suspiciously generous supply of comfortably-sized-for-throwing rocks were being hurled at the bucket, Petal and Daniel both missing but Pity discovering a sudden usefulness as her rock landed in the bucket on the first try!\n\nThe bang of stone against wrought iron was terrifically loud, but apparently her aiming shot helped Petal at the very least because this time it was [i]her[/i] rock that landed... and Connie's cage, having been gaining speed with the clattering sound of the pulley mechanism overhead, finally started to slow once again.\n\nAnd trust the caged, sexy nerd to be able to contribute! A sharp eye and a bizarrely level head, and she was even able to shout suggestions at her friends for how best to keep landing rocks! Even if one of Petal's throws [i]did[/i] go so wide as to strike Connie's cage instead of the counterweight, setting in swaying frighteningly.\n\n\nIt was just a shame that it was taking so [i]long[/i].\n\nDid Connie still hold her belief about this all being nothing more than a game? Because while her descent had grown slower, the rocks landing in the counterweight were taking a horribly long time to build on that. To the point that, several meters above the blindingly hot molten rock, the cage floor had gotten increasingly warm, then hot...\n\nAnd then very soon so hot against Connie's footpaws that she'd be looking for ways to keep from too long touching, lest she start feeling the consequences.\n\nRock, after rock, after rock was thrown, the counterweight swinging but never losing the stones that had landed...\n\nAnd then finally, [i]just[/i] as strategies to keep discomfort from moving into real pain and fear had been exhausted? There came a loud [i]click[/i] from the mechanism above. A sharp lurch of Connie's cage... and then she was rising. Smooth and steady now, some arbitrary limit apparently having been met and the pulley's direction allowed to reverse.\n\n\nEveryone must have been able to tell; this competition was going to have winners and losers. In the end, if the scores came down to throws landed? Then it was four to Pity and then two each for Daniel and Petal.\n\nBut then Connie's cage had stopped rising! Had that outcrop been there before? Either way, when the bars sprung open on one side, she had an easy route back to her friends without having to jump the gap!\n\n[center][b][u] [/u][/b][/center]\n\nThis time, the group did not get [i]blip[/i]'ed anywhere! Apparently having been dumped into a chamber whose only exits were the tunnel forward and a magma-bottomed precipice, the producers had decided that their little stars could be trusted to find their own way for the time being.\n\n\nWhen they [i]did[/i] make their way onward, in whatever arrangement they cared to after adventures and clashes so far, the tunnel ahead was not terribly long, nor even poorly lit. It was one of those videogame conceits where the underground labyrinth was gloomy but adequately visible, with the excuse of luminous lichens growing here and there on the walls. And, when the tunnel opened out...\n\nThere was no sign of their camp. Which might make sense, given the theme of this new area? Nonetheless there was absolutely someone taking great pleasure in the little reminder of the cubs' situation: a grim, damp-aired chamber looked for all the world like the dungeon of some children's story villain's castle, complete with dim, black iron-barred cells on either side of a lichen-lit passage.\n\nFour cots, two to a cell, and while the open, barred doors could be slid noisily shut if anyone wanted, there seemed to be no way to actually lock them. No comfy tent blankets here either, just scratchy-looking woolen things - although blessedly they did [i]not[/i] realistic touches like inhabiting pests.\n\nEven if beady eyes could occasionally be caught peaking at the hapless children from shadowy corners, now and then.\n\n\nAt least they still had their magic camping pot! Which would make for an incongruous touch when it came time to use the provided little wooden bowls on it, given just how good their 'campfire' food continued to be. It even came with a *Minerva!\n\n\"Well done,\" and she sounded as if she really meant it, too. Quite possibly the divine fox girl had been genuinely worried about whether Connie [i]would[/i] get saved, after all the confrontations lately. \"I have to tell you that the challenge was scored, but, I really am glad that you worked together.\"\n\nSmall, apologetically smiled silent second, then, \"Connie, you did well helping your friends. Pity, you landed four hits, and that makes you the winner of this challenge.\"\n\nAs ever, there was the little white [b]+1[/b] before Pity's nose, while *Minerva turned to the two remaining cubs. \"Daniel, Petal, the two of you both scored two hits... I have been told that Petal is the loser, due to the stone that very nearly hit Connie.\"\n\nAnd there was the black [b]-1[/b], floating up before Petal's nose.\n\n\nAgain, a little moment quiet, then, \"Daniel, only you found an orb this time...\"\n\n[color=#888a85](Please see [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3639870#commentid_9157255]Here below[/url] for your question and opportunity to answer!)[/color]\n\n\"Try to rest. I will come to tell you who will be leaving next, soon.\"\n\nApparently *Minerva did not feel the need to tell the children they would have to choose between two symbols, because this time she simply [i]blip[/i]ed away, leaving behind the two icons floating in the air, larger but very much like the numbers that indicated lost and gained Life Points.\n\nEven Cybele wasn't present! The four cubs were going to be, at least for now, alone in the dungeon together.\n\n[center]#H3641367 #H3615590[/center]\n\n[b][/b]\n\n[center][b][u] [/u][/b][/center]\n\n[b](Summary/Key points:[/b]\n - Connie got put in a cage! You all had to fling rocks into a bucket to save her - and you did! Just.\n Her feet got singed a bit.\n - Pity was considered to be the winner, having landed four rocks. Petal was the loser, having tied\n with Daniel at 2 but scoring a nasty critical fail (and hitting Connie's cage).\n - Your new surroundings are an underground dungeon! Like, a proper one, with cells and stuff.\n Two cots to a cell, two cells, tents and their contents are gone again for now. Cookpot and bowls\n are still in the corridor between, though!\n - No *Minerva or Cybele, for now. To drive home the prisoners tone for a start!\n - Please remember to contact me with your symbol choices!\n\n\n[u][t]Remaining Cubs[/t][/u]\n[icon]PaydayWolf[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8958052](Connie)[/url] \n[icon]MystBunny[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8959771](Daniel)[/url] [icon]PetalLaFleur[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8965166](Petal)[/url] \n[icon]PityPlowed[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8965346](Pity)[/url]\n\n- Cub reactions [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3639870#commentid_9157252]Here[/url]\n- Predator reactions [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3639870#commentid_9157254]Here[/url]\n- Orb questions [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3639870#commentid_9157255]Here[/url]\n- Audience reactions [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3639870#commentid_9157256]Here[/url]\n[center][b][u] [/u][/b]\n\n[url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3627430]<--- to the previous prompt[/url] | [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533932]to Labyrinth of Twilight Details/Index[/url] | [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3647746]to the next prompt --->[/url][/center]", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Pity, absurdly, was almost alone in going unmolested. Petal was assaulted in the aftermath of the last challenge, Poly was taken, and Daniel was concussed after a kick from the party's most powerfully-legged slut.

There were a rising number of people in the audience who'd argue that last point of distinction was necessary.

At least their environment didn't change; there were worse environments in which to sit and worry about what horrible things were happening to their tragically good-intentioned friend, what horrible thing would happen to the group next, and who was going to be next on the potentially literal chopping block.

But, inevitably, it didn't last. With the abruptness had become the norm ever since the masterminds of the show had decided that their victims couldn't be trusted to press on under their own power, come the day of the next challenge the group's surroundings shifted almost without transition. From the manicured foliage of a fine garden, with its fresh air and comfy temperatures... to what might at first seem like another cave.

It might even have been a cave, at one point! All signs pointed to their being underground after all, even if Pity, Petal, and Daniel were now in a torch-lit chamber walled in roughly cut stone blocks. But nobody with an ounce of fantasy experience would fail to recognize a dungeon - a proper fantasy dungeon - when they saw one.


                                                                                                                                                \t

The Ninth Challenge


Only Daniel, Pity, and Petal however. Connie had been separated from her friends. Still in sight of one another! But where the trio had a stone floor to stand on, Connie got metal. And cage bars. And a view of her friends across a not insignificant gap that, if she were to poke her head between the bars and glance down, dropped away to terminate in a yellow-orange glow was disconcertingly reminiscent of lava.

Whatever else Connie might feel in that moment however, and despite everything might be said about her by the audience, Connie continued to prove that she was not, in fact, an idiot! Perhaps this, along with her being the only party member that none of the survivors had a grudge against, was the reason she had been put into the cage above the pit.

Looking at the mechanism from which her cage was suspended, the clear presence of a bucket-counterweight on the other side of an assembly of ratchets and gears rather than a simple pulley, and the way her cage began, with a lurch, to slowly descend into the pit? It was Connie that sussed the challenge, shouted at her friends that the three of them were supposed to be saving her using the counterweight.


No doubt there was a competitive element at play, but in the moment, all three challengers focused on saving Connie! Or at the very least realized their might be consequences for not giving it their all, regardless of who had punted who across the campsite the other day. Soon, the chamber's suspiciously generous supply of comfortably-sized-for-throwing rocks were being hurled at the bucket, Petal and Daniel both missing but Pity discovering a sudden usefulness as her rock landed in the bucket on the first try!

The bang of stone against wrought iron was terrifically loud, but apparently her aiming shot helped Petal at the very least because this time it was her rock that landed... and Connie's cage, having been gaining speed with the clattering sound of the pulley mechanism overhead, finally started to slow once again.

And trust the caged, sexy nerd to be able to contribute! A sharp eye and a bizarrely level head, and she was even able to shout suggestions at her friends for how best to keep landing rocks! Even if one of Petal's throws did go so wide as to strike Connie's cage instead of the counterweight, setting in swaying frighteningly.


It was just a shame that it was taking so long.

Did Connie still hold her belief about this all being nothing more than a game? Because while her descent had grown slower, the rocks landing in the counterweight were taking a horribly long time to build on that. To the point that, several meters above the blindingly hot molten rock, the cage floor had gotten increasingly warm, then hot...

And then very soon so hot against Connie's footpaws that she'd be looking for ways to keep from too long touching, lest she start feeling the consequences.

Rock, after rock, after rock was thrown, the counterweight swinging but never losing the stones that had landed...

And then finally, just as strategies to keep discomfort from moving into real pain and fear had been exhausted? There came a loud click from the mechanism above. A sharp lurch of Connie's cage... and then she was rising. Smooth and steady now, some arbitrary limit apparently having been met and the pulley's direction allowed to reverse.


Everyone must have been able to tell; this competition was going to have winners and losers. In the end, if the scores came down to throws landed? Then it was four to Pity and then two each for Daniel and Petal.

But then Connie's cage had stopped rising! Had that outcrop been there before? Either way, when the bars sprung open on one side, she had an easy route back to her friends without having to jump the gap!

                                                                                                                                                    


This time, the group did not get blip'ed anywhere! Apparently having been dumped into a chamber whose only exits were the tunnel forward and a magma-bottomed precipice, the producers had decided that their little stars could be trusted to find their own way for the time being.


When they did make their way onward, in whatever arrangement they cared to after adventures and clashes so far, the tunnel ahead was not terribly long, nor even poorly lit. It was one of those videogame conceits where the underground labyrinth was gloomy but adequately visible, with the excuse of luminous lichens growing here and there on the walls. And, when the tunnel opened out...

There was no sign of their camp. Which might make sense, given the theme of this new area? Nonetheless there was absolutely someone taking great pleasure in the little reminder of the cubs' situation: a grim, damp-aired chamber looked for all the world like the dungeon of some children's story villain's castle, complete with dim, black iron-barred cells on either side of a lichen-lit passage.

Four cots, two to a cell, and while the open, barred doors could be slid noisily shut if anyone wanted, there seemed to be no way to actually lock them. No comfy tent blankets here either, just scratchy-looking woolen things - although blessedly they did not realistic touches like inhabiting pests.

Even if beady eyes could occasionally be caught peaking at the hapless children from shadowy corners, now and then.


At least they still had their magic camping pot! Which would make for an incongruous touch when it came time to use the provided little wooden bowls on it, given just how good their 'campfire' food continued to be. It even came with a *Minerva!

"Well done," and she sounded as if she really meant it, too. Quite possibly the divine fox girl had been genuinely worried about whether Connie would get saved, after all the confrontations lately. "I have to tell you that the challenge was scored, but, I really am glad that you worked together."

Small, apologetically smiled silent second, then, "Connie, you did well helping your friends. Pity, you landed four hits, and that makes you the winner of this challenge."

As ever, there was the little white +1 before Pity's nose, while *Minerva turned to the two remaining cubs. "Daniel, Petal, the two of you both scored two hits... I have been told that Petal is the loser, due to the stone that very nearly hit Connie."

And there was the black -1, floating up before Petal's nose.


Again, a little moment quiet, then, "Daniel, only you found an orb this time..."

(Please see Here below for your question and opportunity to answer!)

"Try to rest. I will come to tell you who will be leaving next, soon."

Apparently *Minerva did not feel the need to tell the children they would have to choose between two symbols, because this time she simply bliped away, leaving behind the two icons floating in the air, larger but very much like the numbers that indicated lost and gained Life Points.

Even Cybele wasn't present! The four cubs were going to be, at least for now, alone in the dungeon together.

\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\tIcon 09 by Flowerfall\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\tIcon 08 by Flowerfall\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t


<Please roleplay responses by replying to the appropriate ‘Reactions’ comment below! I am trying to return to a proper schedule after everything that happened, meaning that my intention is for the next prompt to be this this Sunday. Father's Day and visiting family may cause a small delay, but we will see.>

                                                                                                                                                    


(Summary/Key points:
 - Connie got put in a cage! You all had to fling rocks into a bucket to save her - and you did! Just.
   Her feet got singed a bit.
 - Pity was considered to be the winner, having landed four rocks. Petal was the loser, having tied
   with Daniel at 2 but scoring a nasty critical fail (and hitting Connie's cage).
 - Your new surroundings are an underground dungeon! Like, a proper one, with cells and stuff.
   Two cots to a cell, two cells, tents and their contents are gone again for now. Cookpot and bowls
   are still in the corridor between, though!
 - No *Minerva or Cybele, for now. To drive home the prisoners tone for a start!
 - Please remember to contact me with your symbol choices!


Remaining Cubs
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
PaydayWolf
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Connie)
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
MystBunny
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Daniel)   \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
PetalLaFleur
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Petal)    
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
PityPlowed
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Pity)

- Cub reactions Here
- Predator reactions Here
- Orb questions Here
- Audience reactions Here
                                                                                                                                                      

<--- to the previous prompt         | to Labyrinth of Twilight Details/Index |        to the next prompt --->
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