Hole-y Normal {open}

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

Laharl stood in the bottom of the hole, looking up in disbelief. He'd just been out here, attempting to scout out the land and possibly get a little distance between him and his captives, minding his own business, walking along as though he hadn't a care in the world. If he were the type to whistle, he would even have been whistling. The Great Laharl would never do such a thing, especially considering that his mood had become even blacker of late. Strange things were happening; he'd even heard tell that there was something truly odd going on at the mall or what have you, and he'd somehow managed to miss all of it. Worse, his attempt to take over the world via kidnapping just wasn't going well. At all.

And now, to top everything off, he was in a hole.

"This is not how you treat an Overlord!" yelled the young man. He kicked the side of the hole, which only resulted in some dirt and debris falling down about him. Quite a bit of it caught in his mouth, making Laharl spit and sputter violently, wiping at his face. He ended up glaring at the debris about him, clearly blaming it for his situation. How the heck had something like this happened? What kind of crazy person would set a hole in the middle of no where anyway?

Grumbling, Laharl tried to jump, trusting his trusty legs to get him out. He made it.... a few feet, before hitting the side of the hole and sliding to the ground miserably. Grumbling and cursing, he pulled upright and tried again, making even less distance. Then, Laharl tried scrambling, pushing against the hole in a desperate attempt to get out.

Nothing.
Nada.
Laharl just slid right back down into the hole. Yelling, Laharl began violently hitting and kicking the hole around him, hoping to possibly do enough damage to, oh, break the wall or something. He wasn't really thinking clearly at this point. He was, however, making a lot of noise, which would surely attract some attention, right?

[Henry Charmant]

Henry had heard about something happening in the forest, and after his display in the mall, well, he thought it might be a good idea to check out what was here so he would have something a little more favorable to report back to Twilight and CAUS. He was having a little trouble finding the right area, though, and was wandering back and forth when he heard some noise coming from his left.

Having nothing better to go on, he began to head in that direction. Soon he spotted where the ground fell away, and he peered into the hole with curiosity. The source of the noise appeared to be a younger boy who was shouting and apparently trying to break through the walls of the hole, perhaps to make it larger? Though it seemed strange he would be digging a hole and seem so upset over it.

"Hello there!" he called down, hoping he could be heard over the yelling. "Do you need any help?"

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

Henry was not heard over the yelling, for Laharl was a master-yeller and was getting dangerously near levels that would make some people quiver in terror. However, Henry was at least somewhat visible, especially to someone who was looking up and thrashing. Laharl had to take a step back, well, half a step, the hole wasn't that big, in order to actually see Henry. even when he did, he paused to blink owlishly, not quite believing that the whole yelling thing had actually worked. Fate must have decided to be nice to him, though it did feel like he'd been trapped down there for almost a month now.

"You there! Human person!" said Laharl, waving his arms. "You need to help me get out of this hole," which proved that Laharl definitely had not been hearing, let alone actually listening. He punched the wall of the hole a few more times, which still amounted to not a lot of anything. Grunting, he folded his arms and looked up at the human, hoping against hope that he'd actually managed to run into one of the few useful humans in this entire area.

"You do know how to get someone out of a hole, right? You can get down here, and I can step on your head and climb out," which sounded like a brilliant, foolproof plan to Laharl. Obviously.

[Henry Charmant]

Henry was relieved when the boy stopped screaming, though he did still seem very upset. He sighed slightly at the demand to help out. This guy was as bad as some of his cousins, though they never would have spoken to the crown prince like that. The kid was also, apparently, bad at listening.

He frowned at the suggestion. "Alternatively," he said calmly, "I can go find a tree branch and lower it down to you for you to climb out. Just a moment, I'll be right back."

It actually took a couple minutes of searching to find anything that might be useful. He finally jumped up onto a low tree branch and swung on it in order to crack it off the tree. Maybe it wasn't very environmentally friendly, but surely that meant less than saving someone's life. He carried the six-foot branch back to the hole.

"All right," he called down again, "here you go. Watch out so you don't get hurt. You're going to have to climb up. I'll hold it on this end." He moved toward a large rock near the edge of the hole so that he could brace himself against it. Still, he wasn't too concerned, since the kid didn't look that heavy. Slowly, watching over the edge of the pit, he lowered the branch toward the stranded individual.

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

"What? Don't defy my order, pathetic human!" yelled Laharl, shaking his fist in a rueful manner toward the sky. "Get down here and--- hey! I'm yelling at you! And giving you orders! And that is a stick."

Laharl stared at the stick as it flopped against the side of the hole. He got the vague idea that the guy above him had been saying or doing something having something to do with the stick. Something about Laharl using the stick. Was Laharl supposed to try and vault out of the hole? Use the stick to beat the guy senseless in order to prop his body up the side of the hole? Break it into pieces and---no, no, Laharl was definitely going with the beat the guy senseless idea.

Another call, something about climbing up. "Ah, so you can drop me when I'm halfway up. Clever plan, human, but you'll find yourself in trouble soon enough," Laharl grinned, thinking that he could totally get one over on this total white-hat. Oh, if only he had some of his powers. Well, actually, if that were true, he probably would have ended up in one of those strange event things that were happening and were totally awesome. But it seemed to be Laharl's fate to continually miss out on stuff like that.

Still grumbling, the small boy grabbed onto the branch, working at climbing up. He pulled hard, but he was still outweighed by Henry by a lot. Laharl had never been especially large, and if anything, he'd gotten scrawnier since the Shift. Barring any unfortunate incidents, Laharl should be able to just climb on up...

[Henry Charmant]

Henry ignored Laharl's yelling, beginning to realize that this kid just liked to yell a lot and it didn't necessarily mean anything. He held the stick in place and rolled his eyes, a new gesture he found he quite liked. "I'm not going to drop you," he said. "I'm not actually that cold and heartless as to leave someone just wasting away in a hole."

As the kid grabbed on, Henry shifted his hands so they were firmly grasping the upper part of the branch, ready to haul out as soon as the guy was near the top. He stood with his foot braced up so he could pull with his entire body, making it even easier for Laharl to get out. As soon as he felt like Laharl was securely holding on, he called out, "Just keep holding on and I'll try to pull you up." He took a step backward, hauling the branch with him.

Just as he began pulling, though, Henry heard a sound behind him. He stopped moving except to slowly turn his head around. He'd gotten a little jumpy ever since that encounter with the gorilla in the mall. And now when he saw something moving in the trees behind him, something distinctly not human, he panicked a little and jumped off to the side, dropping the branch completely.

The deer moved through the woods, and Henry gave a small sigh of relief. Then he realized his mistake and ran back over to the hole, poking his head over the side. "I'm so sorry!" he called down. "I didn't mean to do that, I just, I just saw something up here. It's okay, don't worry. Just hand me the branch and I'll try again. I promise I won't drop it this time."

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

"Better not," muttered Laharl darkly under his breath. True, he wasn't entirely sure what, if anything, he'd do to Henry if the guy did drop him. The human did seem to have the upper hand... this time. Oh, how Laharl longed for the day when it would be him standing over humanity with the stick, poking at them and laughing as they begged for him to help them up. The thought proved so entertaining that he chuckled, even as he attempted to both hold on and drag himself a little further up the stick. Laharl was, at least, healthy for his size, even if that size was scrawny and rather on the weak side of things.

"Really? Thanks for that!" Laharl called up as Henry gave advice. "I really wouldn't have thought of that without your help. Truly, human, you must be a geni---hey, hey I'm---ahahah!'

The screaming happened as the branch suddenly gave way. Laharl found himself sliding back down the hole, scraping his back against the sides. For one of the first times since arriving here, Laharl was glad that he'd opted for a more "native" state of dress: his usually bared back would've just gotten quite scratched up by the sides of the hole. As it was, Laharl still felt pain raking down his back. nothing serious, to be sure, but it was that annoying kind of scratch that looked pathetic but hurt worse than taking a meteor to the face.

So there was Laharl, at the bottom of the hole, armed with a stick, and staring, almost as if not believing that he'd totally been right for once. He saw the head sticking over, and he glared up at it. "You dropped me!" he yelled, brandishing the stick. "Do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for the same ploy twice, human?" Laharl barked a laugh, waving the stick. He shifted it, moving horizontally and jamming it. He then managed to push against the side of the wall, clearly determined to pull himself up. "When I get up there, I am going to beat you with your stupid stick, you stupid human! Be thankful that I don't have levels in javelins!" And then Laharl mumbled something about focusing on sticks and magic that made absolutely no sense as he actually managed to climb a few feet from the hole. It was about that time that Laharl was realizing that this might not work all the way up. in fact, he was beginning to suspect he'd get stuck halfway up...

[Henry Charmant]

"Look, I'm really sorry!" Henry protested again. He was starting to get the feeling that not only was this kid rude and a little vain, he also had some serious trust issues. Maybe all of those were tied together, actually. But Henry didn't dwell on that; he was too busy trying to bumble together an apology and wondering how he might still be of help. "I can get another branch! I can go get something else and we can try again, and I swear I won't drop it this time, even if a rampaging gorilla comes out of the trees."

But the kid wasn't listening. Instead, he was actually being...rather effective, managing to get at least part of the way up by himself. Henry could see, though, that the tactic would only manage to get him halfway up the pit. The good news was that by the time he was that far up, another branch wouldn't be necessary. Henry could just lean over and try to pull him out by hand.

He laid down on the ground, wrapping his legs around the same rock he'd tried to brace himself against before. Stretching out, he reached his hand into the hole and towards Laharl. "Here," he said. "Grab on. I can pull you out or you can use it as a grip to try to crawl up on your own." There, options, and a way to still feel a little bit independent. Henry felt confident of his own grip on the rock behind him. As long as the kid didn't purposely try to pull him into the pit, they should both be able to get out just fine.

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

"Suuuuure you are!" Laharl called up. He was far more focused on the whole getting out of his situation instead of the stupid human's stupid problem. Laharl had met plenty of idiots like the guy above him, both before coming here and since. He knew that they were best used as stepstools. In point of fact, Laharl was half tempted to point out that if Henry had just climbed down there and did what he'd said to do in the first place, they wouldn't be in this situation. True, Henry would probably be stuck down in the whole, but Laharl wasn't seeing how that was his problem.

So Laharl continued doing an admirable job of completely ignoring Henry. He did look up and squint after getting pretty well balanced on the branch. There was the idiot, leaning over and stretching out his hand. Laharl stared at Henry with a look that was half contempt and half disbelief, letting his eyes flick from hand to face as if to suggest that perhaps it would be better if Henry just started smacking himself repeatedly. The end results would probably be more satisfactory and useful than anything the guy had done since.

"oh sure, you want me to grab on," said Laharl, eying the hand. "So you can then punch me or drop me or something. I told you human, I'm not stupid. for I am the Great Lah---ooh shoot," the branch had slipped slightly and Laharl had to rapidly adjust, moving remarkably quick for a human his age and size. At least his reflexes were still good, though he still felt decidedly small and unimportant. He let out a sigh before looking up at the hand, following it to its owner. "How do you know I'm not just gonna pull you in here and use you as a stepladder? You know, if we'd just done what I'd suggested from the start, I wouldn't be in this mess."

Okay, so he broke down and said it. He kept eying the hand though, obviously not trusting. His branch slid again, however, and Laharl had to scramble, readjusting his position. He managed to get a little closer, but it was clear that he was not making it all the way out without help, a fact that Laharl was beginning to understand himself.

[Henry Charmant]

Henry couldn't figure out what the contemptuous glare was supposed to mean, or why the kid seemed so confused by the sight of Henry reaching over to help. "No, I--" he tried to protest, but the kid (The Great La-something) wasn't listening. When he started to slip on the branch, though, Henry instinctively flung out his other arm in a hope to grab on to something and keep any further damage from being done. But it seemed that La-whatsit was not only good at getting halfway up a pit himself, he was also good at keeping himself there. Henry heaved an involuntary sigh of relief when the branch steadied.

He laughed at the next comment, not actually expecting the kid would want to pull him into the hole. Then he looked at the guy again and remembered his attitude thus far, and Henry reconsidered things. "Well first of all," he said, deciding to use logic instead of just laughing aside the suggestion, "doing that would leave me stuck down there, and that can't...be...what you want." He finished that lamely, not at all sure if that was true anymore. "Secondly, you have no guarantee that I would be tall enough to serve as an effective stepladder. And third, I'm nice, but I'm not about to let people just walk all over me. I'm still a prince, after all. There are other things we can do, I'm sure, to solve this problem. Now just grab my hand and I'll pull you up and we can both get out of here, or you can help me search for whatever showed up in the woods the other day."

The blood was beginning to rush to Henry's head. He really hoped that the kid would make up his mind quickly.

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

"That's totally what I want!" protested Laharl. He altered his position, getting ready to grab the hand. It galled Laharl, but it didn't seem like the guy was really going to go through. At the explanation for that, however, Laharl barked a laugh. "A prince? I was a prince, and then my old man went and kicked it. Would have done him in myself if he'd given me a shot. I totally outrank you. Now hold still, I'm gonna use your hand to get up."

With that, Laharl reached for the offered hand. He latched onto Henry's offered one easily enough. Laharl gripped tight, shifting his stance to work at pushing himself up. Muscles flexed, and again, it became obvious that this kid at least knew what he needed to do. It was just getting his body to actually obey that was proving the issue. Because even now, Laharl managed to pull himself, but couldn't quite seem to get up by his own power. His face was starting to turn red from the exertion, and he took several deep breaths as he pushed through it.

"Well, help me out, human prince!" commanded Laharl, waving his other hand wildly and more or less flailing. Together, they should be able to make it out. Laharl wasn't exactly a heavyweight, and the prince certainly seemed doughy enough. That couldn't all but pastry-chub.

[Henry Charmant]

Henry froze as Laharl spoke, less because the kid had ordered it and more because of the casual way he mentioned the death of his father. How could anyone wish that on their parent? What kind of a horrible life did this kid have that he had even wanted to kill his father?

Despite his shock, he managed to grab hold of Laharl's wrist, waiting a little while to see if the kid wanted to pull himself up. When it became apparent that he was unable to make it on his own, Henry grabbed on with his other hand and began scooting backward, trying to sit up and lever Laharl out of the hole. His time practicing swordplay and various other sports came in handy; he actually had the upper body strength to sit back, though the kid's efforts certainly helped. There was no way he could've managed to pull his dead weight up.

Henry rested, kneeling on the ground near the hole. "How did you even get down there, anyway?" he asked, a little breathless. He almost asked about the whole "killing your father and becoming a king" thing, too, but he wasn't really sure how to approach that topic. One step at a time. "Did you fall?"

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

Laharl didn't notice Henry's shock or expression or anything, because that would require actually caring about someone who wasn't named Laharl. He simply used Henry to get out of the hole. As Laharl's feet left the branch, he heard it snapping beneath him, which only served to add a little more wiggle and fire to Laharl's movements. His kicking and flailing managed to get him out of the hole. Laharl sat on the ground, leaning back slightly and looking at the hole. He panted with exertion, though he was trying to cover it up by looking cool. Which, given the explanation for his situation, was going to be really darn hard:

"There was a trap!" insisted Laharl, gesturing toward the hole. "I was just walking along, minding my own business, and then the road gave out from under me! Someone totally wanted to make a trap and put it out here. They probably want to steal something from whomever falls in, like, say, small creatures that could be trained to attack people and shoot lightning from their cheeks. That definitely happens in weird places."

Laharl looked at the hole again, kicking at the ground. "If I were in charge of this place, there definitely wouldn't be any holes. That's what's wrong with this stupid world." Among many, many other things. Laharl let out a frustrated sigh, wondering if he should try to help himself up or just sit here a little longer. He really ought to try the whole moving thing, but it sounded like so much work...

[Henry Charmant]

Henry was suspicious of the kid's story. He had heard of traps where the ground looked solid and then fell away, but there was no evidence of that sort of thing here, at least not that he could see. No debris from a cave-in, no branches covering the opening. It might be magic, of course, but even if there was a trap, it was hardly meant to capture small animals for any reason. "It's...sort of a large hole to capture something that small," he said. His other arguments, he figured, would probably be dismissed. Besides, part of him wanted to see what other excuses the guy could come up with.

"I think there are other more pressing issues to deal with in this world," he said, rolling his eyes, "than just a few holes in the ground. Though oddly enough, that's what I'm out here to see. I heard rumors about some sort of secret hidden out here underground that got uncovered in some of the recent mess. That's what I'm out here for." Having got his breath back, Henry stood to go. "I'm going to keep looking. You should probably head back to your dorm or whatever. Watch out for more traps." He tried to keep the sarcasm out of his voice for the last one. It was a new thing, sarcasm, but Henry was finding more and more that he really enjoyed it.

"You also might want to watch out for small rodents and their lightning, while you're at it," he said with a small grin. "Those sound like a real nuisance."

[Laharl Krichevskoy]

More pressing issues? Well, yeah, that was true. Even Laharl would have to admit to that. There was the whole "not having his awesome hair and power" issue, which for him, was definitely a major one. Or how about the complete lack of dimensional gateways? They should be able to come and go as they pleased; that was how things worked back in Laharl's homeworld. But no, instead they were all stuck here.

But wait, the stupid guy mentioned the recent mess... and an invisible base. Laharl perked up at the second one, his head jerking up to stare at the other guy. The kid had, of course, heard about the stupid CAUS group and their struggles to get home, but it hadn't been something that interested him. Laharl was more interested in finding out why his powers were gone, and that was only tangentially related to getting home (though he wouldn't mind that either, but seriously, going home without his powers was not an option).

"What? You've obviously never been on the receiving end of a thunder bolt before," muttered Laharl, who had, on several occasions, been on the brunt end of such attacks. He didn't even want to think about it, really. The thought alone made him shiver. He shook it off though, nodding and looking to Henry. "This invisible base sounds interesting, and I haven't gotten to do anything cool since I kidnapped that guy at the party. So lead on, mortal," Laharl waved imperiously. "And I, the great Laharl, shall help you with your stupid quest," and hopefully figure out some way to turn it to his advantage in the meanwhile.