Labyrinth [Done!]

[Bee]

“Monty!” Thalia called. “Monty, come back!”

But of course Monty didn’t listen. Monty turned, issued a challenging hiss, and darted down the hall. Thalia gave chase, shampoo bottle in tentacle, determined to throw the little bander in a bath and scrub the living hell out of hir. Monty had somehow managed to roll in some kind of…sludge…and while Monty seemed to consider it some kind of toxic battle coating that would protect hir from the bite of hir enemies, to the Cards of the house it just smelled, outrageously, and the filthy stank was only getting worse by the hour.

Which Thalia also wouldn’t care about (the apartment played host to a variety of interesting scents depending on what kind of experiment was being conducted) if Monty didn’t keep wandering up to her and rubbing against her. Why was Monty only affectionate when s/he was covered in slime?

“Naughty bander! Get back here and get in the bubbles! Think of them as tiny heads! You can crush them!”

[Dark]

Iskra hadn't been particularly pleased to being roped into bander-bathtime to begin with, and as she watched Thalia go dashing off after the escapee, she couldn't help but wonder why Thalia had anticipated this sort of behavior from Monty--but, then again, in Thalia's eye the demonic little creature could do no wrong--and barracaded the bathroom door or something. It had been easy enough to trick him the first time, but they'd never get hir into the bathroom again without a fight. A fight Iskra wasn't particularly looking forward to; and they had to catch hir, first.

The whole apartment complex was a maze, a whole lifetime of alterations--additions and subtractions; hidden passageways and secret workspaces; empty rooms, meant for forgetting; and gods know what else--and Iskra was fairly positive no one was as familiar with it all as Monty (and Minh and Mnem, but they weren't telling). They'd never find him.

Iskra sighed, glancing at the front door whimsically--would Thalia notice if she slipped out?--and dutifully followed after her friend.

[Bee]

At last! They had the little bander cornered, after chasing him up a flight of stairs, down a pole, across a rather dangerously wobbly plank that seemed to substitute for the floor in one of their fifth story rooms, and through what seemed curiously similar to a hamster run, but didn’t have a wheel so Thalia wasn’t particularly interested in investigating it. But finally there was nowhere Monty could go.

“It’s scrubbin’ time,” Thalia said, with devilish relish. Monty shrieked manfully but it was to no avail. Thalia had triumphed. Her pet would recognize her authority!

Then Monty yanked open a latch on the floor with hir ferocious little claws, pried the trap door open, and leapt down into the darkness.

Thalia scowled. “Very tricky, Monty! But you haven’t won. I can jump through floors too!” Thalia dropped herself through the hole in the floor, wondering where it actually lead.

[Dark]

Iskra considered the dark hole in the floor very carefully; unlike Thalia, she was not prone to jumping headfirst into unknown situations. Especially if the situation was a trapdoor that could potentially lead to horrible injury and or death. So Iskra listened carefully for a moment for any sounds of pitfalls or injuries that her exuberant friend might have encountered.

When she didn’t hear the tell-tale-sign of anything hazardous, she followed cautiously after her friend.

The drop led into a crawlspace, and they followed the click and skitter of Monty’s claws for a long time through the dark, cramped space. Iskra didn’t care for the experience at all; she could feel the walls pressing in on her, with no ready escape. When a dim bit of light appeared up ahead in the distance, she rushed towards it gratefully. As much as she was loathe to admit, she had been near hysteria. The light, and openness of the space they found themselves in, was dearly welcome.

And then she felt the eyes on her.

[Bee]

There were banders. There were dozens upon dozens of banders, watching her from piles of strange objects, from gutted meals. They all had huge, dark, feral bander eyes, and at least half of them were rather wonderfully mutated. Monty stood in the middle of all of them, looking like some kind of royal personage. Shi hissed loudly and proudly. The other banders squawked in response. It was a rather odd cacophony.

“Oh Monty!” Thalia said, not at all surprised that they had some kind of bander society beneath their house. “I’m so happy you have friends!”

The banders gathered themselves and dragged something before Monty. Monty rooted around in it, before holding aloft a couple of strings that looked to be shot through with bones and teeth. Shi tossed them towards them. Thalia looked down at them curiously. Monty shrieked at her. Thalia picked up the string, held it a moment, and then wrapped it around like a necklace. Monty gave an expectant hiss at Iskra.

[Dark]

Iskra was very aware, as she picked up the string, of the eyes on her; the little beasty had led them into a bloody trap, and Iskra would have been rather impressed—was, truly, and also vaguely horrified that the beasty was so intelligent—if she didn’t know how badly this could turn out for them. Monty seemed to hold sway over the—nest, den, tribe?—but Iskra couldn’t find much comfort in that when surrounded by unknown, mutated, feral banders; how much control did Monty really have over them?

Iskra followed Thalia’s example, and wrapped the string around her neck as Monty moved to stand in front of them. Shi considered them carefully, pacing back and forth, stalking around them. Iskra started to panic, thinking maybe they had done something wrong. But then Monty stopped, rearing back on its back legs and shrieking something fiercely. Its minions joined in enthusiastically, shrieking and trilling.

Apparently, they had been accepted. Or something.

Watching the rambunctious, feral creatures leaping around them, Iskra wished she felt more relieved.