So...it was time for somebody not fthg or me to post....

Where last we left off...

Mee (the werewolf) is leading Vili and Ve through the Grendlefing Pass. Dan is cautiously following, with Bip leading him as a guide.

In Asgard, Odin and his Valkyries are attending to RTC, who is just awake from her recent episode, TLP, who is lying with his face in her stomach, and Eva and Tamsin, who are examining RTC and TLP, respectively.

OOG: Actually, RTC got up and sat in her chair again. TLP's just on the floor, now.

IG: RTC seems to be drawing something on the table with her finger.

Walking ahead, with a silly grin on his face, Dan wonders if he really does have the toothache or not. Something's hurting, he decides, and concludes that it's not really that important, next to the fires of pain in his sockets.

High overhead, a large dark bird, a crow--or a raven--perhaps, flies past. It caws, its lone voice carried by the wind.

Bip continues following Mee, honking his nose and giggling through the hem of Dan's robes, as instructed.

(OOG: Am now in State College, so I'll be absent for a while. On the plus side, Barry's got finals tomorrow, so I'll probably be around.)

Odin watches RTC, and motions for the Valkyries to leave her alone. "Are you alright?" Odin asks after several moments.

"We're coming up to the center now. Cheery faces everybody, or you'll frown for the last time," the werewolf says. He glances back at Bip and genuinely grins. "Take a page out of Bip's book. He's doing well. Good job little guy."

Tamsin watches the motion of RTC's finger to see what exactly she is drawing.

Eva sniffs TLP agan, then snorts and paces. She rolls him until he's face up (if he was face up -- I've forgotten -- then she turns him over completely until he's facing up again) with her snout, poking him up under the ribs rather roughly. From an outside perspective, it's difficult to say whether she is trying to wake him... or if she just REALLY doesn't like him at all.

A might pretty sight you all look now, says the Helpful Voice to Dan.

Dan casts his mind around, trying to think of something to be cheerful about. Nothing comes readily to mind, though, and the best he can do is make a forced grin. The toothache is still there.

He hears the mental equivalent of a slight embarrassed cough, and the memory of the Valkyrie resurfaces from his mind. How could he have forgotten? He grins--a real grin--and plods forward, a sort of silly smile on his face, unmindful of the toothache (or whatever it is), which has grown leaden and heavy in his head.

Tamsin sees that RTC's drawing what would appear to be a lot spirals and straight lines. There's a circle here or there, too. Because RTC's not making any mark to the table, however, Tamsin can't really tell what the whole lot's supposed to be.

RTC looks up, but continues drawing. She just stares at Odin for a bit, then cocks her head. "I think so. But I also don't think so." she doesn't seem to be able to make any sense of what she just said.

Aside from his breathing and pulse, Eva could almost mistake TLP for being dead. He doesn't respond to her prods at all, and he seems rather cold, but that could just be because he's TLP.

As the group approaches the center of Grendelfing a horrific noise erupts. It sounds like the screams of nightmare, the shreik of dying innocence; far worse than a collection of the horrors and genuine terror, it is the seat of all that is good, but twisted into something wretched. It is the gathering point of the clowns.* Any in the group not feeling blissful, mindless joy should feel all the other emotions rumbling about in fear, clutching tightly to them, desperate to hold on despite the influx of fanatical joy, and all the more potent as a result.

"Is there something I can do for you?" Odin asks while doing a fantastic job of concealing a small grin at RTC's confusion.

*This is a very very well kept secret. IF your charcter knew what the horror of Grendlefing pass was, they need ot have been there before, and been blissed out of thier mind at the time if they were going to survive.

RTC wouldn't have noticed the grin if Odin hadn't been concealing it and had the habit of eating fifty packs of Tri-Dent Whitening a day. She's too busy drawing on the table.
"I don't think so. I think I'd need to know what was wrong with me to know, though."

Tamsin shakes her head, also somewhat amused.

Eva keeps watching TLP.

"Would you like me to take measures to find out?" Odin asks.

RTC pauses a moment and looks up at Odin. Only for a moment, however - her finger begins moving again almost immediately, and RTC shows no sign of having lost track of what she was drawing. She looks back to her doodling and appears to think about Odin's offer. "...I suppose... what kind of measures?"

TLP isn't doing anything under Eva's watchful eye.

OOG: I'm a little unsure--how does the horror affect our characters? Are they able to maintain a bouncy happy veneer, or is this like a mindless horror thing?