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Warning for non-con, peril, and bad ends of various forms.", "count": "23", "submission_left_submission_id": "3557071", "submission_left_file_name": "5450511_Flowerfall_title_card_01.png", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5450/5450511_Flowerfall_title_card_01.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5450/5450511_Flowerfall_title_card_01_noncustom.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5450/5450511_Flowerfall_title_card_01_noncustom.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_medium_noncustom_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_noncustom_y": "120", "submission_left_thumb_large_noncustom_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_noncustom_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_huge_noncustom_x": "300", "submission_left_thumb_huge_noncustom_y": "300", "submission_right_submission_id": "3562753", "submission_right_file_name": "5460785_Flowerfall_title_card_01.png", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5460/5460785_Flowerfall_title_card_01.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5460/5460785_Flowerfall_title_card_01_noncustom.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5460/5460785_Flowerfall_title_card_01_noncustom.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_medium_noncustom_x": "120", "submission_right_thumb_medium_noncustom_y": "120", "submission_right_thumb_large_noncustom_x": "200", "submission_right_thumb_large_noncustom_y": "200", "submission_right_thumb_huge_noncustom_x": "300", "submission_right_thumb_huge_noncustom_y": "300" } ], "description": "After an eventful several days for basically everyone, one way or another. If cubs weren't preemptively denying their predators their first experiences, they were getting into fights, breaking and entering, trying to teach themselves self-defense, summoning the least helpful of goddesses…\n\nOf the cubs that went seeking, Poly, Trixie, Skylar, Connie, Petal, and Pity were the ones to make a curious discovery! Or a particular curious discovery: basically everyone likely remembering some stand-out bit of their time in the abandoned, pristine city. But each of them would stumble on an orb. Never any great challenge to find as such, but always just sitting there in plain view at the end of some small feat of exploration. A particularly difficult to scale wall, an especially challenging to smash and wriggle through window, a faint to follow but curious scent.\n\nThe spheres were matte, but glowed softly in a color to match their finder – almost reminiscent of those cool, custom-decorated tents they had left behind upon finding themselves ‘kidnapped’ and box-bound by gnolls! Or the beds distributed among the inn’s three rooms, each with an appropriately colored sheet. Each orb was the size of a large orange, and similarly weighted, but none of them were amenable to being opened or used in any way. They’d just be... there, clearly some kind of treasure but nothing immediately to be done with them.\n\n[center][b][u] \t[/u][/b][/center]\n[color=#888a85][t][center]The Fourth Challenge[/center][/t][/color]\n\nWhen the challenge came, it came even more abruptly than the last. The last one the cubs had at least been able to go to bed, and the previous two *Minerva had announced or even led them to. But this one? It would be a little bit like Daniel’s escape plan, for those who had participated to experience it.\n\nJust a hitch of reality, a moment of suspension long enough for a thought...\n\nAnd then that particular, deep and smothering sort of [i]sploosh[/i] that comes with a sudden immersion in water.\n\nWhich was exactly what had happened! And even for the most about-themselves of imperilled children, the sheer suddenness and [i]strangeness[/i] of the situation would make it difficult to get bearings, or even fully understand the position they were in! At least the sensations of bondage would be familiar, this time, albeit not nearly so intimate as last.\n\nWrists were once more pinned to smalls of backs, and ankles and knees pinned together, but this time the binds were rope, simplistic, and [i]tight[/i]. Even if any of the cubs had been in a position to assess their surroundings properly, this was no escape puzzle, this time.\n\nRather, in addition to bound wrists and ankles, each of the cubs would be able to tell that they were on there knees, and apparently attached to whatever the hard surface they were knelt on. They were also bent [i]right[/i] down, noses almost against the stone and something hard about their necks more or less keeping them thus, with glimpses through clear, cool water of a surface so desperately close but –\n\nWait, no, maybe it [i]could[/i] be reached! There was [i]give[/i] in whatever they were attached to by their necks, even if it did seem to vary wildly in its resistance as they struggled and tried to figure –\n\nEveryone realized, eventually. Except for Jake. Once again, the poor hare was beside himself with panic and thrashing viciously against his bonds from the start.\n\nBut everyone else? They would get it, even those for whom panic set in [i]immediately[/i] thereafter.\n\nEach cub was knelt immediately across from a partner; they’d be able to glimpse them at any point, but especially if they got the better of them in the struggle. Because that was clearly the aim of the ‘game’: the water was shallow, just enough to reach the waists of the tallest of the kneeling cubs. Unfortunately, there was only just enough rope attached to each cub’s uncomfortably firm collar to bring their heads [i]just[/i] above the water... and only then if the cub on the other end had been dragged right down below against the metal eyelet in the floor between them.\n\nThe cubs had clearly been paired off by age. Petal and Trixie, Jacob and Daniel, Pity and Connie, Josephine and Poly, Skylar and Ash. Some managed to keep their wits long enough to think about their predicament, even to realize that they must be in the shallow end of one of the city’s public baths. Poly’s will even held long enough to come up with an idea or two, in her brief glimpses of light above the pretty, crystal clear water. Such a shame that Josephine’s had snapped at about the same time as the other cubs, and her thrashing against the rope saw fit to keep the little fox submerged far more than she could struggle for a moment’s air.\n\nIt was Trixie whose breath failed first. Neither she nor Petal had escaped the urge to panic as impulse to gasp or scream forced the swallowing of that cool, clean water splashing around them all. But when Trixie stopped fighting, Petal might finally be able to get her nose high enough above the surface that she could see the pretty, daylight flooded bathhouse all around her and her struggling friends. And bent-low Trixie with her hair spreading slowly out around her beneath the surface.\n\nNo hope of helping her, mind. Even if she ducked down, forced herself below the water, there was no forcing Trixie to lift herself in turn whilst still so bound.\n\nDaniel went next, hapless little blue bunny boy having put up a slightly fiercer struggle, but faced with Jacob’s gargle-screaming, thrashing, tugging panic there just was not opportunity enough for air, and the surviving rabbit was still screaming and sobbing thereafter. Given how little of their faces were allowed out of the water, it was a wonder he didn’t manage to drown himself in turn!\n\nBecause that might have been the ... well not the worst of it; that was the drowned friend knelt face down in the water and unmoving. But there wasn’t even enough play on the line for any of them to do more than steal gasps, let alone speak, and especially not with the water so disturbed by a pack of thrashing, fighting cubs.\n\nPity drowned Connie, next. All considered, Pity had held her nerve longer than might be expected, but it had still snapped only just before Connie also succumbed to the urge to panic and fight for air, rather than begin to consider ideas such as rationing. But there was the airhead chee’, unmoving beneath the water for Pity to glimpse every time she managed to steal a breath.\n\nPoly may have held her nerve long enough to realize that they might have half a chance to last, if they worked together, but sadly Josephine had snapped as early as all the others and was doing a [i]terrific[/i] job of dragging the little blonde back down with every chance she manage to gulp for air. It was almost the longest struggle of the ten of them, but inevitably Josephine won out, and would be able to glimpse Poly’s glasses floating free of her bowed head.\n\nOnly Skylar and Ash lasted longer, and then not by much. A similarly fierce match of one panicked cub against another, and the surviving four would have just long enough to appreciate before Ash finally lost the battle and let Skylar come up for air unhindered. Well, unhindered enough to no longer be in immediate danger, at any rate.\n\nWas there time for [i]any[/i] of them to calm down, take stock, even try to speak around water lapping against their barely surfaced mouths? The whole, horrible challenge had lasted only thirty seconds but –\n\nIt happened again.\n\nAnother [i]sploosh[/i], another rush of clean, cool water nonetheless scouring throats as it tried to get into lungs. Whoever had engineered their challenge had clearly thrown any sense of believable setup out the window in favor of showing the audience a pack of cubs suffering, panicking, and drowning.\n\nPetal and Jacob, Pity and Josephine. Skylar, apparently having won the privilege of continuing to look at drowned Ash by lasting the longest, might have been so outsized among her friends that she could even try to speak here and there! But it contributed nothing as re-immersion, again with zero warning, cut clean through already frayed nerves and set all four remaining contestants panicking once more and dragging each other to splash up and down below the surface of the pool.\n\nJacob’s thrashing did for Petal in as short an order as she had drowned Trixie, albeit this time the boy’s will held just enough to appreciate what he had done to the little wolf girl. That, and watch as Pity and Josephine, both instantly panicked by the resumption of the challenge, splashed back and forth over and over for long, long seconds before...\n\nPity stopped fighting.\n\nJosephine and Jacob might have [i]just[/i] long enough to lock eyes before it happened again, the two of them suddenly facing one another and fighting for the surface. Perhaps a thought of cooperation had crossed Josephine’s mind, but Jacob was having none of it, and a scream-gurgling, thrashing, fighting hare trying to drown you was apparently enough to drive away coherent thought almost as quick.\n\nWhen the ripples were beginning to settle, it was Josephine who was able to see Jacob was no longer moving. And maybe notice Skylar, who, kneeling in the water across the way, had had chance to watch her friends get popped around in the water and drowned one by one. And maybe realized what was coming just before she and Josephine had been plunged back under.\n\n\nNeither girl’s wits lasted. Josephine a little longer, even a little longer than before, but for Skylar the watching and knowing it was coming had clearly grown too much, and she was fighting right away to be the one could gasp and keep her muzzle up in the sunlit space of the bathhouse’s high-ceiling chambers.\n\nUp and down they went, the two girls near an equal match but growing all the weaker moment by moment all the same. The gleefully watching audience must have been betting furiously by this point, but in the end, it was Josephine that fought and held the longest before breath failed.\n\nLittle skunk girl was the one got to find herself kneeling in a bathhouse full of her drowned friends as the water slowly drained away, leaving them all soaked, bedraggled, unmoving –\n\n[center][b][u] \t[/u][/b][/center]\n\nThe [i]GASPS[/i] all came at once. Every cub [i]lurching[/i] back to life and consciousness, and free to deal with the water fighting desperately to be coughed back out onto the slick floor of the empty tub, all of them still bound kneeling but at least no longer with a cub attached, alive or dead. A shame nobody was unbound, though. Best they could manage would be looking about the bright, clean, pretty space of the classically architectured bathhouse, noting the metal collar around each of their necks.\n\nOh, and the little sheepgirl with the white halo and pale blue hagoromo, smiling and kicking her dangling legs as she sat on the nearest edge of the expansive bath, in which nine out of ten miserable, sodden cubs had just drowned.\n\n\"Hello everyone!\" cheery as you like, the non-sentient little sheep goddess hopping down to plap-plap-plap bare feet across the slick, tiled bottom of the bath until she was close, but still able to address all at once. \"I bet [i]that[/i] was exciting. The creators said that since I was here now anyway, it would be fun if I came to tell you how you all did! And it really was exciting. Skylar, you [i]so[/i] nearly made it! But it was Josephine who won in the end. And while it was Trixie who lost first, this challenge is a little bit different: everyone who lost the first round will be the ones to lose a Life Point today!\"\n\nUnlike a *Minerva award ceremony, there was no cupping of hands to grant Josephine her winning Life Point. Rather, she simply had that bright, bold [b]1[/b] appear before her for a moment, while Trixie, Daniel, Connie, Poly, and Ash all got to watch its dark opposite [b]-1[/b] appear and fade in turn.\n\n\n\"Now!\" and Cybele gave a little clap of her dark hands, her not-actually-alive, scripted intelligence doing a much better job of pretending enthusiasm than *Minerva could when she was ordered to. \"There’s one more thing to do before you can all go and get dry!\"\n\n[i]Blip[/i]. It was probably a bit curious, the sound coming six items all at once, matte colored spheres manifesting in front of their owners to fall the half inch to the tiles between their knees, each with the softest of [i]clunks[/i].\n\nOh yes, and the muting effect was back. At least nobody needed to be magically restrained right now! All still bound, and hooked against the floor, even if they could now finally kneel up straight and breathe freely.\n\n\"Poly, Trixie, Skylar, Connie, Petal, and Pity, you all found something special! But every treasure orb you found is sealed with a special puzzle. So I’m going to ask each of you in turn, and you get one try to give me an answer before the orb will either open up, or disappear if you get it wrong!\"\n\nThe best part about a [i]non[/i]-sentient presenter NPC, was that she could look excited no matter how her participants were taking the situation!\n\n\nAnd so Cybele asked her questions, giving every cub their chance to respond before finally she went on –\n\n[b][color=#555753][[icon]Polymorph[/icon]Poly, [icon]blessedwasthechild[/icon]Trixie, [icon]Smolfoks[/icon]Skylar, [icon]PaydayWolf[/icon]Connie, [icon]PetalLaFleur[/icon]Petal, [icon]PityPlowed[/icon]Pity, please see the [color=#2e3436]Questions Placeholder in the comments, below the Prey Responses placeholder[/color], for each of your chances to respond!][/color][/b]\n\n\n\"... And that’s that! I don’t know if it will be me or my sister who comes to tell you who gets to leave this time, but I hope you all had a great time! And don't forget to choose the symbol for the Challenge you want to play next!\"\n\nCybele gave a [i]deep[/i], proper bow, smiled sweetly... and then disappeared.\n\n\nLeaving the gang of who-knew-how-traumatized cubs to wriggle free of suddenly loose, sodden ropes and discover that, free though they now were, those thick steel collars were [i]not[/i] going to come off.\n\nBehind her, Cybele had left one significant difference. A pair of statues, formally of pretty, nondescript, jug-wielding ladies had been replaced by the symbols for next time. One was that same rectangle with a corner sectioned out that had spooked so many of the cubs. The other was a circle, with two lines pointing down and diagonally outward from its lower third.\n\n[center]#H3555491 #H3561417[/center]\n\n\n[b][/b]\n\n[center][b][u] [/u][/b][/center]\n\n[b](Summary/Key points:[/b]\n- Cubs that found themselves Mysterious Orb have a question to respond to (in character) in a Questions Placeholder below Prey Reactions!\n- You all got drowned! Some of you repeatedly! Except Josephine. Cubs who drowned in the first round (Trixie, Daniel, Connie, Poly, and Ash) lost a life point, while Josephine gained one.\n- Those who drowned were revived for the results, but still feel very much as if they went through the experience of drowning, and have no memory of time spent 'dead'.\n- That symbol you all thought was so much safer was a pool of water with a rope running up both ways from an eyelet in the bottom!\n- [i]Cybele[/i] did the summary this week! No sign of *Minerva for now.\n- Everyone got a big, cool, [b]metal collar[/b] for the challenge! ...They didn't come off yet.\n- As ever, as of this prompt votes to save each-other are now locked in.\n- Please [b]make and PM me your symbol decision[/b] by Sunday!\n- I'm so sorry it's late. Again. Writing these up keeps taking longer than expected - symbol images have been added!\n\n\n[u][t]Remaining Cubs[/t][/u]\n[icon]Polymorph[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8956124](Poly)[/url] [icon]blessedwasthechild[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8956767](Trixie)[/url] [icon]Smolfoks[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8957427](Skylar)[/url] [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]Mysterythree[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8960555](Ash)[/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] [icon]Mizzyam[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8965608](Jake)[/url] [icon]FlutterBun[/icon] [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533964#commentid_8965902](Fifi)[/url]\n\n- Cub reactions [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3561135#commentid_9008435]Here[/url]\n- Orb Questions [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3561135#commentid_9008437]Here[/url]\n- Predator reactions [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3561135#commentid_9008438]Here[/url]\n- Audience reactions [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3561135#commentid_9008440]Here[/url]\n[center][b][u] [/u][/b]\n\n[url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3557071]<--- to the previous prompt[/url] | [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3533932]to Labyrinth of Twilight Details/Index[/url] | [url=https://inkbunny.net/s/3562753]to the next prompt --->[/url][/center]", "description_bbcode_parsed": "After an eventful several days for basically everyone, one way or another. If cubs weren't preemptively denying their predators their first experiences, they were getting into fights, breaking and entering, trying to teach themselves self-defense, summoning the least helpful of goddesses…

Of the cubs that went seeking, Poly, Trixie, Skylar, Connie, Petal, and Pity were the ones to make a curious discovery! Or a particular curious discovery: basically everyone likely remembering some stand-out bit of their time in the abandoned, pristine city. But each of them would stumble on an orb. Never any great challenge to find as such, but always just sitting there in plain view at the end of some small feat of exploration. A particularly difficult to scale wall, an especially challenging to smash and wriggle through window, a faint to follow but curious scent.

The spheres were matte, but glowed softly in a color to match their finder – almost reminiscent of those cool, custom-decorated tents they had left behind upon finding themselves ‘kidnapped’ and box-bound by gnolls! Or the beds distributed among the inn’s three rooms, each with an appropriately colored sheet. Each orb was the size of a large orange, and similarly weighted, but none of them were amenable to being opened or used in any way. They’d just be... there, clearly some kind of treasure but nothing immediately to be done with them.

                                                                                                                                                \t

The Fourth Challenge


When the challenge came, it came even more abruptly than the last. The last one the cubs had at least been able to go to bed, and the previous two *Minerva had announced or even led them to. But this one? It would be a little bit like Daniel’s escape plan, for those who had participated to experience it.

Just a hitch of reality, a moment of suspension long enough for a thought...

And then that particular, deep and smothering sort of sploosh that comes with a sudden immersion in water.

Which was exactly what had happened! And even for the most about-themselves of imperilled children, the sheer suddenness and strangeness of the situation would make it difficult to get bearings, or even fully understand the position they were in! At least the sensations of bondage would be familiar, this time, albeit not nearly so intimate as last.

Wrists were once more pinned to smalls of backs, and ankles and knees pinned together, but this time the binds were rope, simplistic, and tight. Even if any of the cubs had been in a position to assess their surroundings properly, this was no escape puzzle, this time.

Rather, in addition to bound wrists and ankles, each of the cubs would be able to tell that they were on there knees, and apparently attached to whatever the hard surface they were knelt on. They were also bent right down, noses almost against the stone and something hard about their necks more or less keeping them thus, with glimpses through clear, cool water of a surface so desperately close but –

Wait, no, maybe it could be reached! There was give in whatever they were attached to by their necks, even if it did seem to vary wildly in its resistance as they struggled and tried to figure –

Everyone realized, eventually. Except for Jake. Once again, the poor hare was beside himself with panic and thrashing viciously against his bonds from the start.

But everyone else? They would get it, even those for whom panic set in immediately thereafter.

Each cub was knelt immediately across from a partner; they’d be able to glimpse them at any point, but especially if they got the better of them in the struggle. Because that was clearly the aim of the ‘game’: the water was shallow, just enough to reach the waists of the tallest of the kneeling cubs. Unfortunately, there was only just enough rope attached to each cub’s uncomfortably firm collar to bring their heads just above the water... and only then if the cub on the other end had been dragged right down below against the metal eyelet in the floor between them.

The cubs had clearly been paired off by age. Petal and Trixie, Jacob and Daniel, Pity and Connie, Josephine and Poly, Skylar and Ash. Some managed to keep their wits long enough to think about their predicament, even to realize that they must be in the shallow end of one of the city’s public baths. Poly’s will even held long enough to come up with an idea or two, in her brief glimpses of light above the pretty, crystal clear water. Such a shame that Josephine’s had snapped at about the same time as the other cubs, and her thrashing against the rope saw fit to keep the little fox submerged far more than she could struggle for a moment’s air.

It was Trixie whose breath failed first. Neither she nor Petal had escaped the urge to panic as impulse to gasp or scream forced the swallowing of that cool, clean water splashing around them all. But when Trixie stopped fighting, Petal might finally be able to get her nose high enough above the surface that she could see the pretty, daylight flooded bathhouse all around her and her struggling friends. And bent-low Trixie with her hair spreading slowly out around her beneath the surface.

No hope of helping her, mind. Even if she ducked down, forced herself below the water, there was no forcing Trixie to lift herself in turn whilst still so bound.

Daniel went next, hapless little blue bunny boy having put up a slightly fiercer struggle, but faced with Jacob’s gargle-screaming, thrashing, tugging panic there just was not opportunity enough for air, and the surviving rabbit was still screaming and sobbing thereafter. Given how little of their faces were allowed out of the water, it was a wonder he didn’t manage to drown himself in turn!

Because that might have been the ... well not the worst of it; that was the drowned friend knelt face down in the water and unmoving. But there wasn’t even enough play on the line for any of them to do more than steal gasps, let alone speak, and especially not with the water so disturbed by a pack of thrashing, fighting cubs.

Pity drowned Connie, next. All considered, Pity had held her nerve longer than might be expected, but it had still snapped only just before Connie also succumbed to the urge to panic and fight for air, rather than begin to consider ideas such as rationing. But there was the airhead chee’, unmoving beneath the water for Pity to glimpse every time she managed to steal a breath.

Poly may have held her nerve long enough to realize that they might have half a chance to last, if they worked together, but sadly Josephine had snapped as early as all the others and was doing a terrific job of dragging the little blonde back down with every chance she manage to gulp for air. It was almost the longest struggle of the ten of them, but inevitably Josephine won out, and would be able to glimpse Poly’s glasses floating free of her bowed head.

Only Skylar and Ash lasted longer, and then not by much. A similarly fierce match of one panicked cub against another, and the surviving four would have just long enough to appreciate before Ash finally lost the battle and let Skylar come up for air unhindered. Well, unhindered enough to no longer be in immediate danger, at any rate.

Was there time for any of them to calm down, take stock, even try to speak around water lapping against their barely surfaced mouths? The whole, horrible challenge had lasted only thirty seconds but –

It happened again.

Another sploosh, another rush of clean, cool water nonetheless scouring throats as it tried to get into lungs. Whoever had engineered their challenge had clearly thrown any sense of believable setup out the window in favor of showing the audience a pack of cubs suffering, panicking, and drowning.

Petal and Jacob, Pity and Josephine. Skylar, apparently having won the privilege of continuing to look at drowned Ash by lasting the longest, might have been so outsized among her friends that she could even try to speak here and there! But it contributed nothing as re-immersion, again with zero warning, cut clean through already frayed nerves and set all four remaining contestants panicking once more and dragging each other to splash up and down below the surface of the pool.

Jacob’s thrashing did for Petal in as short an order as she had drowned Trixie, albeit this time the boy’s will held just enough to appreciate what he had done to the little wolf girl. That, and watch as Pity and Josephine, both instantly panicked by the resumption of the challenge, splashed back and forth over and over for long, long seconds before...

Pity stopped fighting.

Josephine and Jacob might have just long enough to lock eyes before it happened again, the two of them suddenly facing one another and fighting for the surface. Perhaps a thought of cooperation had crossed Josephine’s mind, but Jacob was having none of it, and a scream-gurgling, thrashing, fighting hare trying to drown you was apparently enough to drive away coherent thought almost as quick.

When the ripples were beginning to settle, it was Josephine who was able to see Jacob was no longer moving. And maybe notice Skylar, who, kneeling in the water across the way, had had chance to watch her friends get popped around in the water and drowned one by one. And maybe realized what was coming just before she and Josephine had been plunged back under.


Neither girl’s wits lasted. Josephine a little longer, even a little longer than before, but for Skylar the watching and knowing it was coming had clearly grown too much, and she was fighting right away to be the one could gasp and keep her muzzle up in the sunlit space of the bathhouse’s high-ceiling chambers.

Up and down they went, the two girls near an equal match but growing all the weaker moment by moment all the same. The gleefully watching audience must have been betting furiously by this point, but in the end, it was Josephine that fought and held the longest before breath failed.

Little skunk girl was the one got to find herself kneeling in a bathhouse full of her drowned friends as the water slowly drained away, leaving them all soaked, bedraggled, unmoving –

                                                                                                                                                \t


The GASPS all came at once. Every cub lurching back to life and consciousness, and free to deal with the water fighting desperately to be coughed back out onto the slick floor of the empty tub, all of them still bound kneeling but at least no longer with a cub attached, alive or dead. A shame nobody was unbound, though. Best they could manage would be looking about the bright, clean, pretty space of the classically architectured bathhouse, noting the metal collar around each of their necks.

Oh, and the little sheepgirl with the white halo and pale blue hagoromo, smiling and kicking her dangling legs as she sat on the nearest edge of the expansive bath, in which nine out of ten miserable, sodden cubs had just drowned.

"Hello everyone!" cheery as you like, the non-sentient little sheep goddess hopping down to plap-plap-plap bare feet across the slick, tiled bottom of the bath until she was close, but still able to address all at once. "I bet that was exciting. The creators said that since I was here now anyway, it would be fun if I came to tell you how you all did! And it really was exciting. Skylar, you so nearly made it! But it was Josephine who won in the end. And while it was Trixie who lost first, this challenge is a little bit different: everyone who lost the first round will be the ones to lose a Life Point today!"

Unlike a *Minerva award ceremony, there was no cupping of hands to grant Josephine her winning Life Point. Rather, she simply had that bright, bold 1 appear before her for a moment, while Trixie, Daniel, Connie, Poly, and Ash all got to watch its dark opposite -1 appear and fade in turn.


"Now!" and Cybele gave a little clap of her dark hands, her not-actually-alive, scripted intelligence doing a much better job of pretending enthusiasm than *Minerva could when she was ordered to. "There’s one more thing to do before you can all go and get dry!"

Blip. It was probably a bit curious, the sound coming six items all at once, matte colored spheres manifesting in front of their owners to fall the half inch to the tiles between their knees, each with the softest of clunks.

Oh yes, and the muting effect was back. At least nobody needed to be magically restrained right now! All still bound, and hooked against the floor, even if they could now finally kneel up straight and breathe freely.

"Poly, Trixie, Skylar, Connie, Petal, and Pity, you all found something special! But every treasure orb you found is sealed with a special puzzle. So I’m going to ask each of you in turn, and you get one try to give me an answer before the orb will either open up, or disappear if you get it wrong!"

The best part about a non-sentient presenter NPC, was that she could look excited no matter how her participants were taking the situation!


And so Cybele asked her questions, giving every cub their chance to respond before finally she went on –

[\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
Polymorph
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPoly, \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
blessedwasthechild
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTrixie, \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
Smolfoks
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSkylar, \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\tConnie, \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\tPetal, \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\tPity, please see the Questions Placeholder in the comments, below the Prey Responses placeholder, for each of your chances to respond!]


"... And that’s that! I don’t know if it will be me or my sister who comes to tell you who gets to leave this time, but I hope you all had a great time! And don't forget to choose the symbol for the Challenge you want to play next!"

Cybele gave a deep, proper bow, smiled sweetly... and then disappeared.


Leaving the gang of who-knew-how-traumatized cubs to wriggle free of suddenly loose, sodden ropes and discover that, free though they now were, those thick steel collars were not going to come off.

Behind her, Cybele had left one significant difference. A pair of statues, formally of pretty, nondescript, jug-wielding ladies had been replaced by the symbols for next time. One was that same rectangle with a corner sectioned out that had spooked so many of the cubs. The other was a circle, with two lines pointing down and diagonally outward from its lower third.

\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\tIcon 03 by Flowerfall\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\tIcon 04 by Flowerfall\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t



<Please roleplay responses by replying to the appropriate ‘Reactions’ comment below! Tag and/or PM me your character's decision with regard to the symbols. The next prompt will ideally be posted on Sunday, in 2 days' time.>

                                                                                                                                                    


(Summary/Key points:
- Cubs that found themselves Mysterious Orb have a question to respond to (in character) in a Questions Placeholder below Prey Reactions!
- You all got drowned! Some of you repeatedly! Except Josephine. Cubs who drowned in the first round (Trixie, Daniel, Connie, Poly, and Ash) lost a life point, while Josephine gained one.
- Those who drowned were revived for the results, but still feel very much as if they went through the experience of drowning, and have no memory of time spent 'dead'.
- That symbol you all thought was so much safer was a pool of water with a rope running up both ways from an eyelet in the bottom!
- Cybele did the summary this week! No sign of *Minerva for now.
- Everyone got a big, cool, metal collar for the challenge! ...They didn't come off yet.
- As ever, as of this prompt votes to save each-other are now locked in.
- Please make and PM me your symbol decision by Sunday!
- I'm so sorry it's late. Again. Writing these up keeps taking longer than expected - symbol images have been added!


Remaining Cubs
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Polymorph
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\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Poly)     \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
blessedwasthechild
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Trixie)     \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
Smolfoks
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Skylar) \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
Mysterythree
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Ash)    \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)          \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
Mizzyam
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Jake)     \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
FlutterBun
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t (Fifi)

- Cub reactions Here
- Orb Questions Here
- Predator reactions Here
- Audience reactions Here
                                                                                                                                                      

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