Eve's Room
This was once the lord of the castle's room, but has been repurposed to serve the lady of the castle instead. And since that lady is still in her teens, and from Rephidim, her tastes are not traditionally Sylvanian. There is a lot of pink and lace, even the curtains. The lamp bases are all carved into fanciful figures, from dancing felines to armored Aeonians and cavorting Kavi. The massive bed sports enough pillows of various shapes and sizes to construct a fort, and the attendant stuffed animals to staff it. There is a bathroom with a large claw-footed tub, a dressing room that doubles as a walk-in closet, and a servant's room that is currently a crafts room. Opera posters are hung there.

It's soon apparent that the Duchess Eve Kurai has never thrown away any article of clothing since moving in, leaving a large assortment in various sizes. This means there are bloomers and camisoles for Linyala and Trilup, so that they can all match Eve. A more recent blue camisole is being offered to Aviri, who is nearly the same size as the Duchess.

Aviri takes the camisole with what he hopes is the right amount of respect and thanks to the Duchess, conveyed with a bow. He points toward the dressing-room. "Should I go in there to change?"

"Ysnor will need your clothes for the laundry," Eve notes, and makes an 'it's all yours' sort of gesture towards the dressing room.

Lin giggles and leans over to whisper to Eve, "So, when do we start turnin' him into the princess of 'is dreams?"

Trilup's yellow camisole looks more like a nightshirt on her smaller frame, but at least doesn't 'ride up' on her tail. "This is the softest thing I've ever worn," she says with delight. "Probably not waterproof though.."

"Like Gnarr?" Eve asks. "See, we used to share the same dream! And he got to be my maid in it. So.. now he dressed up the same way. Does Avery dream of being a princess, really? Guys can be pretty weird."

Aviri disappears into the changing-room and stays there for a while. When he comes out, he's wearing the blue camisole and puffy pants, and it seems the latter are causing him the most worry. He sets his own clothes--neatly folded--on the floor near the door. "I don't have those type of dreams," he says to Eve. "Thanks for letting us borrow these clothes, though!"

Lin had picked out more earthey colours, a light mottled green top and similar poofy biege pantaloons. "Nobody really knows what's goin' on in there. 'Ee stares at moss in his free time." She chirps.

With all the clothes now ready to be washed, Eve pulls on a fancy-looking rope. This apparently operates a bellows somewhere, which blows into a horn, because the noise is not one associated with gentility or summoning servants. Still, Ysnor appears as if by magic and collects the clothes.

"I only stare at moss that deserves being stared at," Aviri says with far too much dignity, considering the clothes he's wearing.

"Ysnor would be a lot spookier if I let him," Eve says, and hops up onto the huge bed and bounces a bit. "He's always going on about cobwebs and dribbly candles and 'keeping up with the Igors' and 'atmosphere' and the like. Plus I think he's a million years old or something."

Lin shrugs and hops up to sit on the edge of the giant bed. "He shut off the box fer us. S'far as I'm concerned, he's alright. Though the door squeaker was a bit overdone. I mean, it only squeaks one way? Who does that? That- That could actually be pretty cool to silently close the doors then slam them behind visitors." She claps for emphasis.

The lapi shudders at the mention of the squeaky hinges. "That was one of the most terrible things," he says. "Except ... maybe my clone...."

"He keeps all the hidden doors in the castle oiled and silent," Eve says. "And he won't tell me where they are! I mean.. I'm sure there are secret passages. It's a castle. You have to have secret passages."

Eve then settles down near the mound of pillows, and pats the bed. "Everyone come up! I wanna hear how you found the box and all your adventures," the kitten claims.

Aviri climbs up onto the bed, looking uneasily at the mattress as attempts to sit down cross-legged. He gives up and just kneels on the bed. "The ... whole thing?"

"Have ye tried lookin for disturbed dust on the floor, any odd scratch marks, slightly wider cracks in the walls, large picture frames, hangin' tappestries, loose wall sconces, or statues with hidden switches?" Lin rattles off then adds after a moment's afterthought, "Some of us scouts got ta poke around Dontgointhe a while back an the older ones showed us what ta look for."

"Jynx.. Duke Feli, my brother, I mean.. doesn't like it when I poke around too much," Eve admits, but then grins. "He's off on a trip though! I'm sure we could find something. Oh.. and you can just tell me the fun parts, Avery."

"Alright..." Aviri says, thinking a moment, even rubbing his chin. "Well, an akwavi named Jack asked me to look for a goblet. Trilup boated me out there, and Linyala here tried spying on us. She made the tunnel collapse behind us, and we managed to get out before making the other end of the tunnel collapse. On our way back we found the box. We've been haunted ever sense." He blinks. "Speaking of which Silv's been awfully silent lately."

"You found the box?" Eve asks. "That's a terrible way to tell a story," she complains. "Where did you find it? Was there danger? Was it in a dungeon? A tomb? Where there monsters and ghosts and vampire shrimp?"

"It was a half-sunken airship," Aviri says. "We took refuge in it. Belonged to Silv, the ghost. So did the box. It was actually in her hands, when we found it." He finnaly turns to Trilup. "Yeeees?"

Lin shoves Aviri half off the bed. "An' the tunnel wasn't my fault. Clods'a dirt were fallin ever since ya knocked over that tree an' opened the hole. T'was just a matter of time. Yer lucky I was there 'cause it gave ya a bit of warnin' that the tunnel was commin' down."

Trilup points across the room, to the wall facing the bed. It has a huge mirror on it, with an ornate frame. They're all reflected in it it.. and on top of the pile of pillows is a Rath'ani woman. For whatever reason, Silv is also wearing a camisole and bloomers, but hers are black with a pattern of repeating skulls on them.

"So.. you were spying on Avery because you're his secret admirer, right?" Eve asks Lin with a big grin. "But he doesn't feel the same! Or maybe he does?"

"Pfff," Trilup puffs. "We caught him with a big naked Rhian woman and he was just brushing her mane or something. No way Lin is gonna charm him!"

Aviri looks at the mirror and tilts his head a bit. "Oh, there's Silv!" he says, waving to the mirror. He stops waving and casts a glare at Trilup. "We had to flee the ship, though, when it started to sink."

"So.. she was had a death-grip on the box!" Eve asks, and looks to the mirror. Her reaction hints that she does not see Silv. "Was there treasure too? Was she a pirate? Is that were Lin got the hat?"

Lin waves at Silver. "An' remember, I kicked his twin down through that hole in the floor an' drown'd him. He's prolly secretly terrified a me. I was spyin on them both fer official Scout business. See, some other scouts'd noticed 'em hangin' about with Jack an' lookin fer maps. I was sent ta find out what they were up to but we all got a little sidetracked with this delivery." She throws a smaller pillow towards the top of the mound to see if the ghost in the mirror reacts.

Aviri nods. "Yeah. Looked like she died trying to protect it. There was a bunch of ivory down there, too, but we couldn't get any of it, due to the boat sinking. And the hat's Silv's, actually. It looked a lot better back when Silv had it. Had a feather." He makes a 'feather' gesture off the side of his head.

The ghost of Silv sticks her tongue out, but doesn't try to dodge the pillow that passes through her. It's not like she was gonna catch it.

"Feathers are pretty spiffy," Eve admits. "So.. is the box haunted or the hat? Is there gonna be a zombie coming for either?"

"More like we couldn't get any of it on account of you panicking and dragin' us both offa the ship before we could haul that treasure chest back to our skiff." Lin accuses, her grin and the lashing of her tail betray that she isn't nearly as annoyed as she's trying to sound though she dows boff Aviri with a pillow.

"Well ... probably not the ha--" Aviri says, before Lin's pillow-attack connects with his head. He falls over onto the bed and quickly picks himself up, glaring at Lin but not retaliating. Maybe because there was no pillow within easy reach. "There might be something coming for the box," he says to Eve. "But I think the hat's pretty safe."

"And you don't know what's in the box?" Eve asks. "How'd you even know it was supposed to be delivered to this castle?"

"My hat's haunted." Lin explains, "So are a couple of other bits an' bobs we took from the ship. The ghost explained everythin' as best she could though her memmory was a little wonky after some seventy years floatin' around the swamp. Dunno what's in the box but it rattles a little if ya shake it."

"I guess if this was her unfinished business, it's only right that she remembered it," Aviri says with a little shrug.

"Wow, so once we open it, she's gone?" Eve asks. Trilup, meanwhile, has stuffed a pillow up under her camisole to make herself look fat.

Lin looks a little shocked, "Um, that's a good question." She siddles around the bed to face the mirror, pouting a little, "Are ya just gonna vanish as soon as we get this open or d'ya want to hang around?"

"Eh, dunno how it works," Silv says, although only the three 'haunted' people can hear her. "Might get boring after awhile. Can only see so much bare bunny butt without getting frustrated and.. even that's fadin' a bit. The frustration, I mean."

Trilup leans over to look at Aviri's butt in confusion. Maybe it's the tail. It's so small compared to a raccoon one..

Aviri's eyes widen at Silv's comment, and he looks genuinely worried. He glances to his companions, and gulps, shifting his posture to turn his butt away from Trilup. "Anyway ... I'm not sure what'll happen to her. Kinda got the impression she'd be allowed to ... not be a ghost anymore, if we did this."

"So that's it then? We open the box an' poof?" Lin throws her arms out to either side, mimicking a little exlposion.

"I suppose being a ghost is only fun for a little while," Eve says, and gives Trilup and Aviri an odd look at their behavior.

The reflection of Silv shrugs. "Poof! Or fizzle. Or swallowed up by a demon maybe.." she comments.

"That sucks!" Lin exclaims. "Is there anythin' we can do to make this less dangerous for you? I mean, yeah, you're already dead but ya know what I mean!"

Aviri looks to Eve. "Don't ask," he says. "And Silv, I doubt you'll be eaten by a demon. I'm pretty sure that's not how ghosts de-ghostify."

"Not mine." Lin barks, "That was really weird. Didn't feel like me again for hours after that." The spy thinks for a moment then asks Eve, "Do you have any spare bodies hangin' around? Silver wants one."

Aviri freezes up a moment, looking at Eve. "Uh ... touch my ears?" he asks. He gulps again, and realizes that she is a Duchess, after all. "S-sure, I guess." He leans toward her a bit, lifting his ears for her.

The feline pets one of the ears, grinning like mad. "I never got to do this back home!" she says.

"Anyway," Trilup says. "After we found the box and learnt where it's s'posed to go, we tried to open it up at the hot springs. Lin got the first symbol, and the box grew these twiggy limbs and tried to run away!"

Aviri's attention is focused entirely on not fleeing, letting Eve enjoy his ears.

"Then it filled Aviri's cabin with blood and he freaked out. It eventually just ran dry though." Lin chirps, she starts arranginf the pillows into a wall.

"Blood?" Eve asks in shock, letting go of the Lapi ear. "Enough to flood a cabin! That's gross!"

"Well it wasn't real blood." Lin counters, "If you want grose, try the time it dissolved me into spider soup!"

Aviri quickly pulls back away, holding his breath a moment longer before releasing it in a woosh. "Illusionary blood, I think," he says, shaking his head to put his ears back to normal. "I think the box can only make illusions."

"Well, next time it made it made Lin's body fall apart.. or sort of escape itself," Trilup notes. "It was really gross. I nearly barfed right into her and she was like otter stew and stuff!"

"Thank you for not doing that. Don't know hot to get vomit off of guts." Lin says quietly, getting a little green around the gills. "That wasn't fun at all."

"In every case, there's always been a limit to its effects," Aviri explains. "With the blood, the blood never left the house. And it vanished, leaving no trace. When we were clones, we couldn't get too far away without ... ending up where the clones ended up. Lin kicked mine in the water, so when I tried to leave it put me back ... under water. But it's always been harmless in the long run."

"We were outside for the out-of-body stuff," Trilup notes. "I got to be the ghost then! We could possess the bodies, but not our own.. and Silv took Lin."

"Though we never did figure out if we got the right Trilup back." Lin adds, "Aviri's clone was really horny so I tossed him through the floor when he tried ta kiss me. My clone was mean an' dumb so I tricked her into leaving the range of the box an' she exploded, then we just shut off the box 'cause Tril's double was exactly the same as her."

"And the out-of-body stuff didn't appear to have a physical range," Aviri says, nodding. "So ... yeah. We should use it inside, next time."

"There are all sorts of magic rooms in the lower level," Eve offers. "I wonder if this all counts as telling scary stories? That's a bit part of sleep-overs."

Linyala dives off the wall of pillows onto the bed. "So we kin get all prettied up then go exploring the castle, lookin' for secret passageways an' monsters? I need ta talk some of my friends into doin' this at Dontgointhe sometime, if Dr. Pike'll let us. Sleep-overs are awesome!" She chirps then fires a barrage of plush creens at Trilup and Eve. Aviri already got a pillow to the head so he's off the hit-list for now.

"If you want a scary story," Aviri says with a grin, "Trilup could tell you about how we met Swampy. I was ... I'm apparently bad at stories. So unlike plants."

Trilup dodges creens, then says, "Oh, yeah, Aviri had to go get some moss from the dark part of the swamp. See, that's what he does. He gets special plants and stuff for people that.. need.. special plants and stuff. That's why he doesn't speak well, because he's used to fungi instead of being a fun guy! Anyway, I took him out, because he helped me when I was stuck and he's my boyfriend now. So we went out, and everything was fine! He went up to get the glowy gunk off a tree, and then Swampy showed up and was gonna eat him, but was there to eat the moss, because it's like something undead like I guess. Swampy is a zombie Serendip!"

Aviri blinks, opening his mouth to possibly add something to the story, but decides against it. "Lin, any scary stories on your end? Besides the soup?"

"Probably!" Trilup claims. "In Stonebarrow, every girl is owed a Lapi boyfriend, or something. For practice!"

"It's just a matter of finding one that likes the smell of fish and can hold his breath a long time," the Akwavi adds.

"Not from this trip." The spy repplies, "There was a weird hole going down into one of the toombs we found in those ruins an' before that there were some froghemoths following us but they're more of a nuisance, ya know? Just steer clear an' bop 'em one if they get too close."

Aviri twitches slightly. "Never heard about that rule," he says. "Not sure what ... constitutes me being a boyfriend. And I've never liked fish much except after being posessed." He laughs at Eve's comment. "Let's trade monsters, then! You can have Swampy and the frogs, and we'll keep the glowy plants that eat people!"

"Yeah, but we're scarrier!" Lin growls, baring her teeth at Eve and waggling her little ears.

"Don't you like being my boyfriend?" Trilup asks Aviri. "Is it because Swampy ruined our first date?"

Lin barks and goes down in a pile of pillows. "Struck down in my prime!" She wails.

Aviri spies a discarded stuffed creen from the floor and bends over to pick it up, examining it carefully in his hands. "Just unsure, Tril," he says absently. He shoots the critter at Trilup, but not being very athletic, and trying to do it sneakily, it flies wide.

"Well, time to dress up and use makeup and stuff!" Eve claims. "And sneak around the castle! And raid the kitchen! I know there's chocolate hidden in there somewhere..."

The Lapi looks a bit disappointed that his attack failed, but pleased Trilup fell over anyway. He looks down at his camisole. "Aren't we already dressed up?"

"We're wearing underwear," Eve points out. "By definition that is not being dressed up! I've got lots of old clothes and stuff. We just need a theme!"

"These are underwear?" Lin asks, "I thought this was fancy! So what's fancy then? Are the clothes made of pockets so we can carry all the loot we find adventuring? Can we dress up like sky pirates in honour of Capp'n Silver?"

"Ah, I ... see," Aviri says, poking at the puffy pants. "Er, fashion is a long way from botany, and I'd guess I'd still know more than the average akwavi..." He chuckles and looks to Lin. "Unless the Scouts teach that?" He leans to Trilup. "A theme is a ... general style. The Duchess wants to know how to dress up."

"Ooo, pirates," Eve says, clutching her hands together. "Magical fairy pirate princesses!"

"We mostly learn unarmed fightin', sneakin', an scoutin. Mostly scoutin' though, there's a reason they call us Scouts." Lin chirps, "With real magic? Kin we fly an' throw lightning bolts an' stuff?"

"We can only pretend to," Eve notes. "But I've got magic wands. And probably cutlasses. We should head off to.. The Adventure Closet!" She makes a fancy flourish and points to the dressing room.

Aviri holds his hands up. "Woah, between haunted hats and a box o' terrifying illusions, I think I'm done with magic." He looks at Eve. "Are ... there really fairy princesses who are pirates?"

"The point of being a fairy princess is you can do anything you want," Eve claims. "So sure, why not pirates?"

Aviri shrugs and nods. "Makes sense," he says. He pulls himself off the bed and stands up. "So long as the magic isn't real."

"Oh! That reminds me of the time we cursed a pair of evil brothers who killed their father for his treasure to get swallowed up by meat-eating moss unless they set their paths right and be all pure of heart an' noble." Lin chirps, "I do hope they straightened out their lives, that curse would be pretty nasty."

"But.. should we check the tree on the way back?" Trilup asks she follows the others.

Eve opens up chests full of.. stuff! There are old dresses that would certainly make for a proper Pirate Wench, in only anyone could actually fill them out. There are lots of scarves though too, and hats and boots and shoes and jackets and vests. One chest is full of old wooden knitting needles that have glitter-covered or glass shapes stuck to the points, to make them into 'magic wands' and lots of stage props, like fake knives and swords. There are even eyepatches. "I own an opera house on Rephidim," Eve notes. "So.. I kinda raided some of the costume stuff.."

"An they couldn't have been stupid enough to open it right there, right?" Lin seriously thinks about this for a few seconds, "Yeah, they're prolly bones. At least we know where ta find a boat on the way home. We're prolly not helpin' how folks think of usoutside the swamp, goin' round, metin' out arcane justice an' whatnot." She gives a resigned sigh then oohs over the costume trunk. "Think we kin find a feather for my hat?" She chirps.

Aviri pulls out an off-white, extremely floofy dress from the chest and tilts his head at it. "So, you don't live here? You have a castle as a sometimes-place-that-you-can-live-but-don't?"

"Oh no, I live here now," Eve says, and hands Lin a box full of colorful 'plumes' that aren't really made from feathers. "See, I lived in a pottery shop with my family on Rephidim, but then Great Aunt Alysin died and left me and my brother Blackshire. And the Opera House. But then mom and dad retired to travel and stuff, so I stayed here to run the railroad! Gnarr helped. We had a lot of iron, see."

"Ah, sounds like fun." The Lapi puts the dress back into the chest. "I know nothing about fashion, so I think you'll have to pick something for me," he says to, apparently, everyone.

Trilup immediately digs up.. an eyepatch! "This'll make you look more manly!" she insists.

Lin takes the box and rifles through, eventually coming up with a red one with a yellow stripe down one edge. The plume gets unceremoniously shortened by Lin's teeth so it's a more reasonable size and won't flail around everywhere. She carefully tucks it in just behind the buckle so the yellow stripe faces down. "Perfect!" She chirps and holds up the hat for inspection.

"First you need an angry ghost." Lin declares, a finger raised in the air knowleadgeably. "Then you figgure out what you want the curse to do, you think up an awesome poem then get everyone to say it while the ghost is grumpy at the thing you want to curse. Easy!" She plunks the upgraded hat over her ears and beams.

Aviri tilts his head at Linyala's feather. "No, that's wrong," he says. "It was big, and purple." He digs through the box a moment, but apparently doesn't find anything. He holds his hands a good distance apart. "About that big," he says. "And ... er ... purple."

Lin nods slowly, giving the purple feather a good mulling over. "Well, it would deffinitely match my scark." She finally concedes.

"I don't have any angry spirits that I know of," Eve notes. "A lot of the bad stuff went away when my brother lifted the curse on the area. Even the swamp receded. This all used to be underwater, with just the tower sticking up!"

"And it'd be true to the spirit of the hat," Aviri nods. He stops and looks around vaguely into the air. "No pun intended, Silv."

"That ain't gonna make our swamp back home vanish, will it?" Lin asks, horrified, "Our swamp is awesome! There's all this cool old stuff that only we kin get to 'cause we can hold our breaths for a long time. If the swamp vanished, so would all our adventurin' places! Stonebarrow would be ruined!"

"Yeah," Aviri says dryly, "all the undead monsters from the Necromancer Wars wouldn't have a place to hide anymore. It'd be terrible." He rolls his eyes and digs around in the chest again, pulling out a lacy pink bonnet. "Er ..." he says letting it dangle from his hand.

"Well, I think the last upheaval that flooded lots of Sylvania started here," Eve admits, lowering her voice while she ties a bandana around her head. "It was something out in the woods that broke, and when my brother and his friends fixed it things started going back to normal."

"Our swamp woulda shown signs if this happened years ago," Trilup points out. "I don't think it's going anywhere! 'Sides, noplace for it to go, since it's a valley under the water."

Lin pouts at Aviri then sneak-attacks him with a red ribbon. "Those monsters are fun though. We chase them, they chase us, we whack'em one an they don't bother noone no more. The older ones get to whack'em though. We only ever get to keep a lookout."

Aviri puts the bonnet down and the eyepatch on, adjusting it confusedly until it sits over his left eye. He has to pull his ear out of the way of the band, but once that's done he leaves the patch be. "I'm glad your brother and his friends fixed it," he says. "This is too nice a castle to be under a swamp."

"It looked really neat from the garden hall," Eve reminisces. "You could look up and see the water through the glass roof, and there'd be glowy fish and monsters." She struggles to get a ruffled blouse to fit, ending up knotting it in front.

Trilup has copied the bandana notion, but hers has polka dots on it. She's got a scarf tied around her waist as a sash, and another going diagonally across her chest. She's also got a 'magic wand' clenched in her teeth like it's a dagger.

Aviri still looks rather lost at the chest of options, wearing only the camisole and poofy pants and eyepatch.

"You need a sash at least," Eve says, offering a green scarf to Aviri. "For sticking your sword into and stuff."

"Guy pirates should be shirtless!" Trilup claims. "And have earrings. Do you have clip on jewelry?" This causes another chest of junk and stage jewelry to be produced.

"At least?" Aviri asks, taking the scarf and attempting to tie it around a shoulder to be more sash-like. He stops when Trilup suggests being shirtless. "Er ... alright." He pulls the half-sash off and starts taking off the shirt as well.

Lin starts rummaging through the costume options with gusto, eventually decking herself out with a poofy white overshirt covering a rough leather vest with shiny blue trim, a pair of grey and red striped baggy pants cinched tight around the ankles, and a bandolier with a suite of six wooden throwing knives. A fake rapier hangs from a wide, loose belt around her waist and her tail is decorated with three silverey rings and a little gold coloured bangle near the tip.

There are lots of rings, clip-on-bits, necklaces and random bling in the chest. Trilup comes up with fingers festooned with rings, right up to the webbing. "How many earrings do you think we can fit on Aviri?" she asks Lin.

Aviri helpfully lifts one of his ears straight out from his head, the thing appearing to hang as though by magic.

Lin rattles her tail bangle as she asesses Aviri's ear capacity. "Should be able ta get a good dozzen or so on each. More if we did both edges!"

It isn't just earrings, as Trilup adds scarves to Aviri's neck and upper arms (for some reason). Eve digs up a fake gold tooth that would fit as well. And apparently all of the earrings are being devoted to the Lapi. Except for potential nose-rings, which Trilup claims.

Eve also breaks out the fairy wings, which just have bands that strap around the shoulders.

"What? No, they just look pretty," Eve says of the diaphanous wings made of stretched fabric and lightweight reed frames.

"Aah." Lin tentatively takes a pair. It takes some adjusting to get the rest of her apparel to play nice with the fairy wings but once she gets everything sorted, she shakes her back a little to make them flap.

With Aviri's ears weighed down with jewelry, and everyone else properly fairified, Eve says, "Let's find some secret passages! I bet there will be one in the old servant's room."

Aviri allows the girls to adorn his ears with rings, growing a worried look as the ears begin to feel ... off. "They ... they all on?" he asks when they appear to be done. He tries to tilt his head and pull on his ears to see the changes.

There are a lot of rings clipped to the ears. They jangle. Stealth is not likely.. but then it's probably not really needed.

The lapi stands up and examines the array of scarves, too. "Please let these secret passages not be filled with undead horrors? Or sentient hungry trees...." He spies and grabs a prop sabre and slips it into one of the scarves.

Lin starts and turns to go back to the main bedroom then stops halfway through the door. "Just wanna grab somethin'." She chirps and scoots off, returning moments later with her armband and a coil of rope. "Never go adventurin' without rope!"

"I think Ysnor uses them," Eve warns. "They may be 'atmospheric' or full of traps and stuff."

"If Ysnors are anything like Igors," Aviri says cautiously, "then we might be safe?"

"Well, he was alone for a decade and might be a little crazy," Eve admits, leading the way to the 'craft room', which is full of paper and fabric and paints and such.

Lin stops by the paints and nods to herself. "This poisonous?" She asks, holding up the blue paint.

Aviri looks around the room, a bit confused. "Is this the ... makeup room?" he asks, recalling the girls getting excited about makeup and unable to determine why else they'd be in a room with paint.

"Good enough!" Lin chirps and uses a finger to paint a blue spiral on her right cheek and down her neck. She adds two short bars to the backs of each paw inline with her arms then offers the paint to Trilup.

"No, I draw and paint and make stuff here," Eve notes, gesturing to a device that turns out to be some sort of sewing machine.

"War paint!" Trilup chirps, and draws a crude 'angry face' eyebrows over her own, and swirls on her shoulders.

Aviri watches with vague interest as the akwavi begin splashing paint on themselves. He turns to Eve and her machines. "Looks like you could have a lot of fun here," he notes, picking up a spool of thread idly. "Do you ever make things you draw?"

"I try sometimes with clothes," Eve admits, and shows off a design for.. something. It might be a one-piece body-suit with bat-like wings attached. "Usually though Butterlump makes the stuff. She made my motoring costume."

"Aviri, Eve!" Lin bounces up to each in turn holding out the paint. "Get some patterns ta go with the pirate clothes!"

Once she's done, Trilup grabs one of the candle-lamps to take with them, in case they find something.

"Paint my.. fur?" Eve asks, looking horrified. Then again, she's got white fur. "They'll make me take a bath if I do that!"

Aviri holds out a hand and shakes his head. "No thanks, Lin." He nods along with Eve.

"We--I already established I'm not swimming," Aviri says. "Maybe ever," he adds at a mutter.

"Well.. that's not the same as a bath," Eve concedes. She does limit herself to just two swipes across her cheeks though. "I'd be in soooo much trouble if my brother of parents saw this."

"We'll be all dusty anyways from the secret passageways. Ye can't be afraid of a little grime if adventure's on the line!" Lin puts the paint back where she found itand looks around expectantly. "So where're we gonna start?"

"Is there a library?" Aviri asks, though he might be asking that because he just wants to read a bunch of books.

"I think there's a library," Eve says, and looks around the room. "Can you scout out a secret door? I bet there's one in here somewhere.."

Lin starts looking around, checking for all the telltale signs she was rattling off earlier. She feels around the edges of shelves and presses on tiles. She presses an ear to the walls and knocks on them, listening for hollow sounds.

One of the wooden wall panels sounds off. And there might be just a bit of mustiness around the edges.

"Think I've got somethin' here!" Lin chirps and checks around the edges of the wall, looking for some way to open it. "Help me look around fer the catch."

Aviri starts forward and begins feeling around the panel, his jangling jewelry hampering his ability to listen for the click of a catch.

The catch is on the right side, and slides with a click to release that side of the panel, which swings out on a hinge. There's a short blast of stale air, and a narrow, dark passage. Full of draping cobwebs of course.

"Well ... that didn't take long," Aviri says. "Guess we don't need to go to the library after all!"