(no subject)

[thequestgiver]

Characters: The Witch of the Candy House
Open? Yep
Where: Two Faced Forest
When: RH4 [or really, any other day if you wanna backdate]
What: In the Forest is a candy house, and a cranky old witch who wants these dang heroes to get the hell off her lawn!





Deep in the Two Faced Forest, next to a lake of impossible clarity sits a small candy house. Walls made of gingerbread, decorated with hard candy that magically stays unmelted in the sun, it's picturesque and inviting. Care to knock on the door? Or just have a nibble of the gingerbread? Either way, take great care. The witch is not known for her good nature...

Comments

[consultmybooks]

No one knows that better than this particular ghost.

...and yet, practically, beyond the fairy tale sense, he knows that old women with mystical powers are often the best sources of information. It had been his intent to try to gather useful information from her before, after a bit of observation for his own knowledge, but she'd sensed him watching, gotten sick of it, and stuck her in a bottle.

So Giles is going to be a bit more forthright, this time. He's standing just outside her gate, perfectly visible, and waiting with the patience of the dead for her to come out. If he has to phase through the wall, he will, but Giles really doesn't want to be stuck in the bottle again.

[thequestgiver]

"Back again so soon?" the crackled voice asked from inside. "You're a stubborn one."

[consultmybooks]

"So I've been told. Um...repeatedly. But, um, I'm actually presenting myself, this time, a-and you'll hardly have to worry about me eating your house."

Really, Giles still can't entirely believe that he's looking at an actual candy house. They may be in a world of fairy tales...but there are places where he just has to draw a mental line.

[thequestgiver]

She gave a snort of amusement as she opened the door, hobbling out into the yard. "As if some insubstantial stammerer is any better. What are you looking for this time? Another round in a bottle?"

[consultmybooks]

Giles actually takes a sharp step back at the question, holding up his hands in an attempt at a mollifying gesture. No. No, he really does not want another stint back in the bottle.

"Just...had some, um, questions to ask. If, i-if that's all right."

The stammering, however, she's going to have to live with.

[folklorist]

Helios really just wanted to see this for himself. Though on first delving into the forest that wasn't his immediate goal. He was actually looking for a source or anything else that could be attributed towards the creatures encountered some nights ago. Having found none so far he'll eventually make his way towards a lake and with it the candy house.

Well he's certainly not too surprised about it. Given the nature of this place but still he might tentatively draw himself nearer and nearer to the candy house. Curiosity was a dangerous thing and after what happened to Giles he knows better than to actually provoke the witch. Still when he's close enough he might bring a hand up to one of the walls of the house. Nothing detrimental in his exploration. He's just mildly fascinated okay? An entire house made out of candy from a children's story. He's met Hansel and Gretel but never the witch.

"It...really is gingerbread. Ha! That's rather amazing." Of course it is Helios, you derp, what else would it be made out of?

[thequestgiver]

Out of seeming no where, a walking stick smacks his hand, the gnarled old witch glaring sideways at him. "Have you no manners, little man?"

[folklorist]

Oh gods. Helios didn't even see the woman there. There's a slight exclamation of surprise from him as he draws his hand back wincing and flinching a little as he holds up his hands in mild defense. "S-Sorry! I-I'm terribly sorry. I-I didn't realize that someone was here. I-I would have asked..." to examine it otherwise. It's still a curious thing, though. Helios looks sheepishly back at the old witch rubbing his hand with a frown as he does so.

"You're the, ah, w-witch..." obvious statement is obvious.

[thequestgiver]

"No, I'm an artist who specializes in acting as part of the installation," the witch retorted sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "Daft fool..." she muttered before lurching over to sit on a candy-crusted bench. "What are you doing here anyway?"

[thoreal]

Thor had no interest in the witch herself, nor her house, nor her lake. No: he was after something even rarer to this world, and certainly more precious to him. He had ridden out with Sif at dawn, as soon as the thorns withdrew, trekking through the Forest in search of Mjolnir. Now, so close to the hammer, the searching was much easier. He could feel it calling out to him, lodged in the ground not far from the lake, the power in it humming to his ears.

He had been uncharacteristically quiet for much of the trip, with a look on his face that Sif might well have recognized from the feast the night after the Bifrost -- and Loki -- fell. The Prince of Asgard had grown much, and grown thoughtful, and now he was thinking as he rode.

[brosif]

Normally, Sif is more attuned to her friend’s moods. In the days after Loki’s fall, she had taken it upon herself to see that he did not wander too far into his own grief. She was rarely successful – it was like encouraging a man to write a letter, days after he had lost an arm – but the effort was there.

This morning, she is a less able friend. She is drawn into her own thoughts, her own dreams, and trying desperately not to be.

“How fare your wounds?” she finally says. She is unnerved to realize that she has not yet asked about them.

[thoreal]

"Mm?" He blinks and looks back at her, stirred from his dour reverie. "Oh... they permit me to ride and fight well enough." He shrugs dismissively. What kind of Aesir does not know how to ignore a little pain? "They will heal in time, even without the stones."

Later on down the line, he may take this back: he's never had to deal with a sustained injury before, after all. Later, they may nag at him the way his thoughts do now.

"Sif..." He frowns down at his horse's neck. "Loki, he..." But he's not sure where he was going with that; only that he knows it's time to have that conversation.

[brosif]

"Has attempted to make amends with the girl, as near as I can tell."

At least, Sansa hadn't seemed in distress or under any sort of coercion when Sif spoke to her. Truly, Sif does not think him capable of the latter. Not to a child, not so soon after wrongly her greatly.

“But I have not spoken with him either.”

She is not trying to cut off whatever lines of questioning Thor may have -- but she has always been apt to deal with current problems rather than past ones.

[wanderwonder]

Oh nooooooo, not another candy house!

How many of these things were there?!

Well, now that Sundrop knew what they were used for, she wasn't going to let it be!

The unicorn approached the side of the house closest to her. It had no window. Good, she didn't want shards of glass falling on her. (Or maybe it would be sugar?)

Positioning herself was tricky, but doable. Satisfied with her placement, Sundrop bucked to create momentum, then delivered a solid double barrel kick to the gingerbread wall.

Hurrah!

[thequestgiver]

There was an indignant exclamation from with in. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Blasted unicorns, why are you ruining my house?!"

[wanderwonder]

Oh cripes, there was someone inside--

No matter! All the more reason to get on with taking the terrible house out! ... Gingerbread was sturdier than it looked, though. It took another kick before the wall crumbled in.

Sundrop twisted to face the inside of the house, lowering her head a fraction. It was a movement of defense and of warning.

"You lure children in with its sweet call," she said, ears trained on the direction the witch's voice had come from. "That is why I am ruining your house."

[thequestgiver]

A sturdy cane snapped out from the hole to smack at the unicorn as the crone emerged. "The devil are you even going on about you blasted nuisance! Get away before I turn you into a crow!"

[trappedinatower]

Rapunzel knew she had fallen asleep at some point, but she didn't remember falling asleep in this forest again. In fact she wished that she knew where she was ever going, so with her frying pan ready for action, she kept an eye out for anything that might try anything.

What she did come across though was not something she expected, she came across a nice looking house. So with her curiosity peeked she walked on over, wondering just who would live in a house like this?

"Hello, anyone home?"

[thequestgiver]

"Whatever you're selling, I ain't buying, so go away!" came a cranky voice from inside the house.

[trappedinatower]

"Oh, no I'm not selling anything. I-I didn't even know people did that. I just wanted to know if anyone was home." Which she now did, though it did look like a unusual home, but given where she said she wouldn't know.

[thequestgiver]

"Hrph. Come to put another hole in my walls, have you? Or help yourself to my hard work? Begone, I have no patience for the likes of you."

I had to

[halfwitch]

Gretel was both entranced by the home and wary of it, leading her to stand awkwardly just outside the walls hand hovering over a piece of candy. On one hand, this was possibly the best thing that could be found by a child. On the other, the last time she'd found a child's paradise she'd been kidnapped by a magical serial killer. She turned suddenly, gnawing her lip and intending to find one of the adults she liked to investigate before going any closer to the home. Instead, she lost her balance and tripped over some rubbish in the yard, cursing out loudly. She stilled as soon as she realized how loud she'd been, glancing back over her shoulder to see if anyone inside the home had heard her.

:D

[thequestgiver]

"Go away! No one's home!" came a cranky old voice from inside. "Lousy heroes, how's a witch supposed to get anything done around here when people keep bothering her..." mutter mutter mutter grumble.

Re: :D

[halfwitch]

"A witch?" Gretel half asked, half choked. She stared at the house like it was about to attack her, frozen to the spot by the conflicting feelings of fear and anger.

[thequestgiver]

"No, a nun. Of course a witch, who else would be able to live out in these woods alone, huh? Now scram, before something eats you. Forest's no place for kids."