A Game of Skill

[Gelquie]

Soon after the illusion disappeared and they were heading towards their next thing, Gelquie realized that Draco was not going to put her down anytime soon. So Gelquie sprung to immediate action... And started kicking Draco.

"Hey!" Gelquie commented as she was hitting him, knowing that her hits wouldn't be very powerful but not caring. "Put me down! We're out."

She took a slight glance at the screen in front of her and noted the situation, but otherwise continued to try to free herself from Draco's grasp.

[Amneiger]

The sword fell out of Amneiger's body and clattered to the ground as the illusion of the second stage faded. He leaned down and picked it up. "Thank you," he said to Kristy as he looked at the sword.

It was an old sword, or at least he thought it was old. There were parts of the blade that looked worn, and it seemed that the hilt had once been painted but the paint was flaking off.

He didn't know how to use a sword, but he held onto it anyway. It might still be useful, eventually.

[Tiger]

Still holding the frying pan, not entirely sure how to store it, Tiger watched the new story begin to unfold. At the sight of the beast, she snorted, wrinkling her own twisted features. "Cute."

As the scene continued, she dug through her pockets in search of material for a makeshift pan-holder, something she could hook to her belt. Maybe she shouldn't have been so quick to discard the satchel from her nomadic days.

[Fraze]

The scene shifts, and the inside of the castle is revealed. It is dark and dusty. Cobwebs cover the rafters like dull gray sweaters. Belle writes something in her notepad.

"Who else lives here besides you?" Belle asks, not looking up from her notepad.
"Just my servants," the beast mumbles. Under the shaggy fur, he looks terrified.
"Where are they?"
"They're, uhh...they're not here right now."
"At some point, I will need to meet them. Where is your family?"
The beast pauses, unable to answer. He looks around several times, as though searching for an escape route. Belle stops walking, and looks at him for the first time since entering the castle. "You do have family somewhere, is this correct?"
Accepting that escape is impossible, the beast hunches over even more. "They're dead."
The woman pauses, then raises an eyebrow. "I see." Her tone becomes the slightest bit softer. "How did they die?"
"A witch killed them," the beast responds after a long pause. "Then she cursed me and all of the servants."
"How long ago did this happen?"
The beast looks to one side, thinking. "Maybe ten years?"
"And how old were you then?"
"Eleven."
Belle jots down several more notes. "Do you have an education?"
"Kind of. But I guess, not really."
This response gets an impatient glare. "Be more specific."
"Uh, the servants taught me a few things. Mostly I read."
Upon hearing this, Belle's expression lights up for the briefest moment, before returning to its default state. "Does your land produce any crops?"
"N--no, it doesn't." The beast looks embarrassed to admit this.
"Do you have tenants?"
"Only the servants who live at the castle."
"Then how does the castle earn its income?"
The beat slouches even farther, and looks at his clawed, hairy feet. "It doesn't."
"Well then, how do you eat?"
"I..."
"Yes? Hurry up."
"I get my food from the forest. The servants don't need to eat because of their curse."
This prompts a series of scribbles in the notebook. The two continue through the castle. Eventually, the beast shows Belle through its entirety, while she grills him with questions and takes notes accordingly.

They enter the library. Unlike most of the rest of the castle, it is clean and well-lit. Piles of books are stacked on the tables and floors, though they are at least stacked tidily.

"Frankly, I am not impressed. This castle is in a severe state of physical disrepair, and on top of that, it is in desperate need of cleaning. Furthermore, it has no income. On top of all of this, your own ability to function actively in society seems to be hindered. If you cannot turn this into a properly functioning castle soon, with an active staff and an active economy, it will be reclaimed by the Social Health and Welfare Department.
"You will be given two months to make the necessary changes to the castle and your own person. Bear in mind that we do not expect you to fix all of these issues immediately. However, when I return in two weeks, I will be expecting to see some definite improvements."

Belle got up to leave, and the beast silently showed her out. He looked even more terrified now than before.

You hear Euripides' voice. However, rather than booming across the stage, it whispers into your ear. "You are now a servant of this castle. This means you have been cursed. You may choose one household object, and take its form. You will still be able to move around, but your ability to hold things will likely be impaired. On the other hand, you will gain all of the utility of the object you choose to emulate--if you choose to be a frying pan, then you can cook an omelette without feeling pain, you can move around the castle without difficulty, but you cannot use a knife and fork. Bear in mind that your decision is final, and you will stay in the form you have chosen until the end of the stage. Choose wisely.
"Once you have chosen your form, you should all vote on what courses of action to take. You will need to choose one primary task to fulfill during the time that Belle is gone. In addition, you must give the beast advice on impressing Belle. Your options for voting are:

• Get the fields plowed,
  
• Clean the castle,
  
• Teach the beast how to dance."
  

((Please vote on one of these options. The majority vote will be the task you go through with. Furthermore, in the same post, you can do any RPing you want, as well as interact with the beast, since he'll need all the help he can get.
Furthermore, be aware that the actions that you choose WILL have an effect on both the direction of the plot and the final outcome of the story. This includes the advice that you give to the Beast!))

[Celestial]

As the illusion became more real to her, Celestial found that she was now a trunk. To her intense disappointment, she was missing the many pairs of legs that some trunks had, restricting her movement somewhat. To her great relief, however, the steel that held the trunk together could detatch itself and form crude legs, somehow without the trunk falling apart. She was not going to question it in case she lost the ability. The trunk itself was well-made; thick oak carved into the image of a single dragon, out of whose eyes she now saw. She was delighted to find out that inside, there was no junk. Considering the state of the castle, this seemed like a miracle.

Getting used moving about and just the feeling of being a trunk instead of a dragon-person, Celestial wandered over to where the rest of the group were, also transformed into various objects.

"I say we clean the castle first. She asked for definite improvement, right? The cleaning would produce the most striking change," she said, resisting the urge to flap the lid up and down in time with her words. That would just look ridiculous.

[Kristykimmy]

"Well, that was weird," Kristy said, watching the sword fall from Amneiger. "You're welcome."

Kristy watched Belle enter, inspect, and then leave the castle, and then waited for the game to start. After listening to Euripides instructions, she considered it.

"Personally, I would have told him to read up on stuff and impress her with his knowledge of books, but I guess dancing is good too. But, what item do I want to become?" Kristy mused aloud. "I think I'll go with a broom."

Before she could say another word she suddenly realized she was missing her arms. She fell over with a shriek of dismay. She was surprised to hear herself land with a clatter, not a thump. She realized she was a broom.

"Dang, that was sudden," she complained, trying to get up.

It was remarkably easy, with a bounce she was upright again. She looked around at the dusty floor. "Might as well sweep the floors here while wait to see what everyone else is going to do."

[Tiger]

Part of Tiger's brain was still on "make a frying pan hanger" mode while she watched the illusion play out. "I need a hook...like a hanger for a lamp....or a hook from a co-"

Eurepides' voice whispered in her ear, Tiger felt the magic seizing up around her - and finished her thought.

"A coat rack?"

Tiger found herself a four-legged, four armed, nearly orange wooden coat rack. A black fedora perched on the highest arm now bore Tiger's eyes, and a mouth somehow extended from the its shadowy base.

"...Oookay, this is...this is weirder than the blue bird thing."

Experimenting with her flexibility a bit, Tiger found she could move two of the coat rack's upper arms, and that by wobbly sashaying, she could scoot a short distance across the floor. Her balance was questionable, but she made it to the others.

After listening to Celestial and Kristy's suggestions, Tiger nodded and said, "I think the Archmage is right. Beyond the biggest change - a clean house will make the Beast happier, and I think it'll be easier to woo the lady with a comfortable place to do the woo-ing."

[Draco]

Draco lets Gelquie down.

"As you wish."

Before Draco could do anything else, he noticed he was shorter now... What was he? He looked around, and noticed his hands were on fire. Well, his hands were fire, sort of... Candles in fact. He was a candelabra.

"Well, this could be fun."

He creates a few small bursts of fire.

"This is indeed fun!"

He lowers his flames and hops over to The Beast.

"Hey there buddy! Chin up! Don't be all depressed because of a cute girl!," then under his breath, "even if she is planning to take everything you know away from you."

He hops around a little.

"Together we can clean this place up! Or something else, let's see what everyone thinks."

((my vote is to Clean, if it wasn't clear))

[PFA]

For some reason, Jernath's first thought when he heard "household object" was "kitchen utensils." No, that was too generic. A knife?

The next thing he knew, he was suddenly a lot shorter. He tried to get a look at what he had turned into, secretly hoping for some kind of steak knife in case they needed to fight something again. To his disappointment, he appeared to be a butter knife. Could he have possibly picked anything more useless?

"Um... okay. Well, I guess we might as well start with cleaning, then," he said, though inwardly he wondered what exactly he was supposed to do as a butter knife. Maybe there would be something to spread butter on. Probably not.

[♥ Azzie]

Azzie looked around, amused. This certainly was a twist. At the same time, her heart went out to the poor fellow. He looked quite frightened, and for a moment she wanted to reach out and give him a hug.

Unfortunately, as she now lacked arms, this was impossible.

Looking down at herself, Azzie saw that she had become a thin green blanket, the fleecy kind normally tossed over sofas to give them decoration as well as handy warmth. Azzie had to admit this was strange. She wriggled forward, discovering that her four corners could be used as makeshift feet, and listened to the others' suggestions. Shrinking away from Draco so as not to catch fire, she piped in.

"Cleaning does sound like the best idea, yeah."

[Amneiger]

Amneiger stood for a moment, thinking.

Three tasks. What could be the most useful form for each? He didn't know anything about dancing, though. Cleaning might be done with a rag or mop, but that would limit his usefulness to that task. For the fields he might be a rake, or sickle. (Did tractor-trailers count as household objects for this? Probably not.)

Water. They both needed water.

Amneiger was suddenly maybe a foot tall. He rolled around on the floor for a moment before righting himself. He had become a metal bucket; his handle was well-worn and his body had some small dents and scrapes, but he was otherwise in serviceable condition.

"Celestial's reasoning sounds good. We should start with cleaning." He looked out at the rest of the castle and wondered how long it would take to clean. Surely it wouldn't take two weeks? If they got done early, they could get started on the fields.

[Fraze]

The votes have been tallied, and you decide that you will clean the castle. Looking around, you realize just how big this task will be: You won't just need to sweep the floors, you'll have to scrub them down thoroughly. That goes for many of the walls as well (the stone ones, at least). Pretty much everything needs to be dusted. The rafters are a huge tangled mess of cobwebs, someone will need to get up there and clean them all out. The dungeons have severe water damage. The kitchen hasn't been used in ten years, since nobody in the castle has needed to eat! A lot of the kitchen tools have rusted due to lack of use (including the stove), and will need to be cleaned and polished. Pretty much the only room of the castle that isn't a complete mess is the library, but it could still use do with sweeping and dusting.

And bear in mind, you're going to need to figure out how to do all of this without hands, arms, and in many cases, legs. This sounds like the sort of thing that might prompt one to make a musical montage in which everybody participates.
Well, Belle did say that she wanted the Beast to learn some necessary life skills...maybe you could get him to help out?

"Beyond the biggest change - a clean house will make the Beast happier, and I think it'll be easier to woo the lady with a comfortable place to do the woo-ing."
The beast's eyes widen under his shaggy mane. "Woo? Th--that's absurd!" he stammers. "There's no way she would want someone like me. She's here doing her job--I mean, checking out the castle--I mean, finding out what's going on here, and..." He fades into mumbling.

"Hey there buddy! Chin up! Don't be all depressed because of a cute girl! Even if she is planning to take everything you know away from you."
The beast opens and closes his mouth several times, but can't find anything to say. He sits on the floor, slumped against a wall.

"She was so...impatient. And the stuff she asked was really hard to answer. It felt like everything I said and did was wrong. How am I supposed to act around her? What am I supposed to do?"

[Fraze]

((Also: I'm rescinding that "Wait for me to post before posting again" rule. This stage is probably going to have more interaction between the players than the previous ones, so feel free to post your hearts out without waiting for me.))

[Celestial]

Celestitrunk walked up to Beast and looked up at him, as much as she could look at people in this form. The carved eyes made eye contact anyway.

"It's because you like her. Just be nice, honest and confident. Also, she seemed to like books. Talk to her about books. Read her a nice poem, maybe?" she suggested. This romantic advice would probably not be much use but she might as well. "But whatever the case, boss, you have to help us out. You've got fingers, well, sort of. Better than we have. And cleaning will help you take your mind off the girl. It will be more relaxing. Plus, girls like guys who can clean."

The dragon-trunk shifted about awkwardly and turned to the rest of the group.

"Well, we have to buckle down as well. Be creative. Those who are already cleaning tools, great, you should have problems. Everyone who has things that resemble hands, use them as best as you can. Attach brushes or brooms to them if you want. There has to be regular, inanimate cleaning apparatus around here. We can do this!" she shouted, banging her metal feet against the cobblestones.

Celestitrunk sniffed around the castle, poking around in corners and looking in cupboards until she had found a stash of cleaning supplies, including a bunch of scrubbing brushes and twine. She tossed them all into herself and brought them back to the main group. She threw the scrubbing brushes out and turned to Beast sheepishly.

"Listen, mind tying these to my front feet? It's just that I'm not good at tying knots at the best of times."

[Draco]

Draco hops around waving his 'arms' around.

"So if we're going to be cleaning, we should start somehow."

He looks around looking at the group and what they were. His first thought, doomed. His second thought, we can make this work. Third thought, doomed again. He shakes his head and his flames shoot up a little, then become dim. He scoots over to a fireplace and lights it. He goes to a duster, that wasn't alive in any way, messes with it the best he could, and manages to pull the handle off and pulls the duster around his body.

"Ok! I'm fired up! Lets get down to business! To clean, the halls!"

He scoots down the hall, dusting as he scoots.