"Now now, Miss Van Helsing," the professor kindly chided his former pupil, "there is no need to be so sharp—concerns for safety are valid, for while we are volunteers, we are also entirely out of our depth, as are you, without the use of magic. We have come, I think, to a sensible conclusion; no need to scold."

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The following 1 user Likes Hamish Darrow's post:1 user Likes Hamish Darrow's post
   Ophelia Devine

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— set by the long-lost bex —

Constance Sykes Lupus Jameshill Declan Wood Carmelina Cramming Eugene Scamander Lilian Hill Hamish Darrow Terpsichore Van Helsing

If the sphinx is interested in their discussion she does not look it; her tail twitches behind her and she settles on the top step. Maybe she likes her new digs.

"Three attempts, fine," she says, when they've settled, "If you discuss and you come to the right answer, fine. If some of you are not clever enough that is also... fine." Her tail twitches again. She seems to have the same definition of 'fine' as they do, although whether her patience will be tested remains to be seen.

"But I won't help you for wrong answers. An answer for an answer. I know what you're looking for."

She starts: "Dead and without death
Timeless and suspended in time
Untouchable and transient
I have made the coward's choice
What am I?"

---

The next 'prompt' post will be after either 48 hours have passed from the time of posting (10:30 AM EST on July 10th) or after every member of the party has posted one time if this occurs before that deadline. Please remember that you must post within 72 hours to continue participating. :)[/b]

The following 2 users Like The Suggestionizer's post:2 users Like The Suggestionizer's post
   Aldous Crouch, Carmelina Cramming

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Are your characters stuck in the smalltalk loop?
Does your imagination feel like it just can't perform as it used to?
Mid-thread crisis getting you down?
Unable to get that post up?
Is your relationship suffering because of your inability to satisfy your partner?
SUFFER NO MORE!
With a little intervention from The Suggestionizer your RP life could be back on track in no time!

--> Click here for more details <--

Known side-effects include: chronic ridiculousness, immense satisfaction, itching, uncontrollable laughter, burning, deep regret, despair, shock, horror, incidental dismemberment, joy, and death. Use at your own risk!

Evidently the sphinx would not wait for their company to come to agreement—though fortunately, Hamish thought, the creature agreed with the terms as he had defined them. That was promising.

The wizard pondered the riddle. He had always thought himself intellectually sharp, but the sphinx's looming presence shook that confidence. Oona's shaking at his heels did little to help the situation, either. After what felt like an eternity, he suggested—to the group, not the creature!—, "Might it be a ghost?"

---

  

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— set by the long-lost bex —

Lou didn't care for Miss van Helsing's holier-than-thou speech, but it seemed pointless to try and argue with someone who do obviously had no sense. He remembered, after all, what it was like to be rash and young and certain of one's own invincibility. It was exactly that degree of undeserved confidence that had gotten him transformed into a goddamn werewolf. If she wanted to recklessly gamble with her life because she hadn't yet realized the truth of her own mortality, that was her business — but hopefully get foolishness would only hurt her, and not take the rest down with her.

Since there was no polite was to express his feelings — since he had nothing to say to her except you are an idiot — he resolved to just ignore her entirely, while that was still possible.

The riddle proved enough of a distraction for the moment. "That seems the only fitting answer," he agreed when the older man spoke. Reluctant as he had been to engage the Sphinx in the first place, there was no denying his involvement now (no distinction had been made, or at least not recognized by the Sphinx, to those who were disinclined to play along), so he was determined to contribute where he could.

  

Eugene twitched at Miss Van Helsing's rant. This was  in fact his job and he wasn't even sure how to go about this. With magic and a fully trained team from the ministry, yeah they'd have been able to handle it, but here, with a half-civilian group of people against a misplaced mythological creature and literally powerless, it wasn't a cut and dry situation. Thank Merlin for Professor Darrow. The man's very demeanor was reassuring, not to mention his intellect.

It seemed that they'd come to some sort of conclusion and the sphinx agreed, so they were going to do this now. Eugene balked at the riddle as he knew he would and again he was glad there were people here who were much more logical than he was. "I honestly don't know, that sounds like it fits though." There was a reason he hadn't been a Ravenclaw after all.

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The following 1 user Likes Eugene Scamander's post:1 user Likes Eugene Scamander's post
   Ophelia Devine

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Though she would dearly love to meet the man brave enough to tell the Bloody Baron he had made the coward's choice Connie could think of no other answer that fitted the riddle quite as well. Even the sulky young man who had been the most vocal about abandoning the church seemed to concur, though he had been left with little choice after Miss Van Helsing's timely reminder that they had volunteered for this, and the sphinx's suggestion that she knew what they were looking for.

"If you're sure I imagine we have to answer officially," she eyed the sphinx, wondering if they were wrong she would attack them all, or just the speaker. "I'll do it if nobody else wants to?"

  

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MJ made me beautiful

As willing - excited - as she had been to encounter the sphinx's riddle, Carmelina was also astoundingly glad that Professor Darrow was present to act as a safety blanket for them all. She doubted anyone would argue that his logic wasn't sound, and so just nodded along in agreement.

"Well, if you don't mind," Carmelina replied to Connie with a nervous smile, relieved again that the group had enough bravery and reason between them to consider this a risk worth taking. She doubted a sphinx was the sort of creature they would be any more likely to be able to fend off with magic as without, but this situation did still seem especially precarious, and she did rather hope no one amongst them died as a result of it.

"If we're all in agreement with Professor Darrow, of course?" She added, looking around to be certain they didn't jump the gun and cause yet more bickering.

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The following 1 user Likes Carmelina Cramming's post:1 user Likes Carmelina Cramming's post
   Hamish Darrow

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Miss Van Helsing's self-righteous rant did not earn her any points in Declan's book. Clearly, she'd never actually had to fight for her life or she would have been a bit less gung-ho about it. At least Professor Darrow had stepped in before he'd been able to voice his scathing remark. Bickering just now, he reflected, likely wasn't a great idea. The sphinx seemed rather indifferent to the group's divided opinions. It seemed they were going to go along with it.

He'd stared blankly at the others once the riddle had been stated. Thankfully, Professor Darrow had come to the rescue once more. The others - much smarter than himself, he wasn't too proud to admit - agreed. He nodded tersely toward Professor Cramming, "Best get on with it."

  

Fucking Christ why had she said that?!

Panic-rising in her chest, though she took pains to keep it to herself and forced her face into neutrality, Connie wondered what on earth had possessed her. Had the fog somehow permeated her brain because in all her life, tinted with the shadow of silver and green, she had never once done anything that was so bloody stupid, reckless and guaranteed to get her killed if it went wrong.

"Easy for you to say," she muttered to the Quidditch player, casting a glance around the group, half-hoping one of them would jump in and take her place, until her eyes lingered on a sweet, nervy smile. Of course: that was why. She smiled back, wary and hoping Barrett had the good sense to destroy some of her private literature, and addressed the sphinx.

"Is it a ghost?"

plz

The following 1 user Likes Constance Sykes's post:1 user Likes Constance Sykes's post
   Elsie Kirke

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MJ made me beautiful

Constance Sykes Lupus Jameshill Declan Wood Carmelina Cramming Eugene Scamander Lilian Hill Hamish Darrow Terpsichore Van Helsing

The sphinx smiles, if one considers a baring of teeth to be smiling. "Yes!" she says, sounding genuinely enthused, "Second one, then. And... you may ask me a question, for the first riddle, while you answer."

She is nothing if not a fair creature.

She starts again: "Wrapped and waiting
For a journey to somewhere else
Taken only by those departed
Stored within molded earth
From long before this time
What am I?"

---

The next 'prompt' post will be after either 48 hours have passed from the time of posting (2:30 PM EST on July 12th) or after every member of the party has posted one time if this occurs before that deadline. Please remember that you must post within 72 hours to continue participating. :)
If you didn't post in the past round, you have until 10:30 AM EST on July 11th to continue participation!

  

---

Are your characters stuck in the smalltalk loop?
Does your imagination feel like it just can't perform as it used to?
Mid-thread crisis getting you down?
Unable to get that post up?
Is your relationship suffering because of your inability to satisfy your partner?
SUFFER NO MORE!
With a little intervention from The Suggestionizer your RP life could be back on track in no time!

--> Click here for more details <--

Known side-effects include: chronic ridiculousness, immense satisfaction, itching, uncontrollable laughter, burning, deep regret, despair, shock, horror, incidental dismemberment, joy, and death. Use at your own risk!

Beyond the enthusiastic confirmation Connie barely heard the rejoinder from the sphinx, too distracted by the surge of adrenaline that had accompanied the confirmation she was not about to lose a limb causing the blood to pound in her ears. At least they had earned themselves one question, and if there were clever it might just be enough to put them on the right track. Of course, another certainly wouldn't hurt, and she deliberately turned away from the sphinx less she be mistaken for the spokesman.

"There's certainly a ghoulish theme isn't there?"

  

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MJ made me beautiful

Lou felt a wave of relief when she smiled (intimidating as said smile was) and listened attentively towards her next riddle. The blond woman was right; there was a theme to the answers, so far, which lead Lou to suggest almost immediately, "A mummy?"

The wrapped bit really couldn't be anything else, that he could think of. Molded earth could well have meant the infamous pyramids of Egypt, though it might have meant half a dozen other things in a different context as well.

He devoted none of his mental energies towards the question they were now permitted to ask her. Lou still didn't believe that questioning the Sphinx would lead them to any answers regarding the fog, though it seemed he'd been overruled on that count. He'd let the over-eager teenage waste her time trying to come up with some way to make this useful, instead of merely reckless; in the meantime, he was going to focus on keeping them alive as best he could.

  

Phew, they'd been correct. It seemed Miss Sykes was in no inclination to continue to be the spokesperson. She'd turned away. From behind her shoulder, Declan caught a glimpse of the creature's grin. Creepy. He didn't like this at all. Without more discussion, the answer to the second question was promptly answered by another. This man was of the same station as he, that was clear.

If he could pipe up with his ideas, Declan certainly could. Without waiting for someone to make a decision regarding the question, he spoke boldly from the back of the group, "How do we reverse the fog and get magic back?"

The following 2 users Like Declan Wood's post:2 users Like Declan Wood's post
   Hamish Darrow, Ophelia Devine

Lilian had kept quiet when they came up with the answer to the first riddle. A ghost had come to mind for her immediately as well but it had seemed a little too simple, like the ease with which they solved the riddle had to make it some kind of trick. Since the others seemed in agreement she'd merely bit her tongue and held her breath until the Sphinx accepted their answer.

The second one was a little more difficult and nothing sprung immediately to mind. They would have to discuss their question before they asked it of course. In the mean time she couldn't help smiling at Miss Skyes remark. "I was hardly expecting the riddles to be about puffskeins and fashion."

When the young man who might have been in Slytherin when she was spoke up stealing the question from the rest of them she could have shoved him. It was a decent question, surely one that played on all their minds but it still wasn't his place to ask it. She tried to contain herself, it wasn't proper to argue and it wouldn't help them but... "Next time we discuss our question." She said tersely.

The following 2 users Like Lilian Hill's post:2 users Like Lilian Hill's post
   Carmelina Cramming, Ophelia Devine

Carmelina let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding when they passed the first riddle unscathed, her heart in her throat at the terror (and the thrill, she couldn't deny) of the next riddle being recited. "That's what I was thinking," she hummed in agreement, with the man who'd said a mummy (who hadn't seemed very keen at all on this whole course of action); but she, likewise, could not imagine anything else that would be wrapped and buried in the ancient earth...

But she stopped short at the boy who blurted out a question without allowing them any chance to think about it! Carmelina's expression turned to one of dismay, silently echoing Miss Hill's thoughts. Not that it had been a bad question, precisely, but a sphinx was bound to be notorious about wording, and it could have been more carefully constructed! She herself had still been musing over whether how, or why, or where would be the best sort of question to start with.

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Excellent. Good. One down, and no one had been maimed. Hamish decided to remain cautiously optimistic about the entire situation.

“A mummy sounds as good an answer as any,” Hamish agreed. “Better, in fact.”

What surprised the wizard, though, was Mr. Wood’s astute question. It was sharp enough that the professor did not begrudge the lad for ‘wasting’ the query that they had earned.

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— set by the long-lost bex —