003 - Flood - OPEN

[changeitroundsome]

[It took him a long time to get the communicator working, it turns out webbed feet are not precisely ambidextrous enough to get the job done with any sense of efficiency. It's certainly too heavy for him to move, so the view is a little frog, peering over the communicator into the camera. He gives a hopeful smile, if a frog could manage such a thing. He's giving it a good try, regardless.]

Bonjour! Don't suppose there's anyone here who can help me out of my room? Seems I got myself into trouble with a witch, and now I got all kind of trouble reaching my door.

[Another pause.] Princess would be welcome, too. The spell breaking sort.

Comments

[changeitroundsome]

[And sitting there, looking up, is indeed a frog. Facilier nods his head in gratitude.]

Thanking you kindly, darlin'. Thought I was gonna be stuck here forever.

[routemistress]

[The little hut creaks up onto its clawed, scaly legs so it can lean forward to examine the frog more closely; and then its door opens.

The woman sitting cross-legged in the hut's doorway is still Iris: an Iris showing the effects of another 900 years of hard drinking and bad decisions, perhaps. She's silver-haired, crabbed and warty, and her sunken face makes her nose and chin so prominent that they almost meet across her mouth.

The hand that shoots out, snakeswift, to seize the frog by its legs is a smaller edition of the hut's claws.]

How adorable. How precious! A man in a frog's skin, how perfectly delicious. What shall we do with him?

[changeitroundsome]

[That hut is terrifying and Facilier crouches his little body closer to the ground. His shadow, also frog shaped, seems to be panicking, flying around the room. Facilier ignores it to instead watch the witch, leaping far too late to evade capture. He dangles there, haplessly.]

I was hoping we could cut a deal, once I'm back to myself, I could really help y'all out. I'm a prince you know, got all sorts of wealth ripe for the taking.

[routemistress]

[She strokes his head with one long, iron fingernail.]

It's adorable that you think any amount of wealth is worth more to me than a talking frog, little one.

...but perhaps I may let you win your freedom. Up in the gardens, there's a well. It's deeper than an ocean, colder than an airless moon - and at the bottom of the well, there's a box.

Bring me that box, and I shall free you.

[changeitroundsome]

[He should have known it was a trap. He tries to wiggle away, but to no avail. Had he been himself, he would have been twisting this into a deal of his own, play her needs against her. Alas, he is not himself, so he doesn't.]

A box? That's all? I think I could just about manage that.