"I wonder if there is a library," Maeve said absentmindedly, running her hand against the wall, then snapped her fingers. They sparked, and a small flame appeared above them.

"Will this do?"

"Woah," Ainsley exclaimed as her eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden change in brightness. From their position at the bottom of the staircase, the two women could see a cluttered mess of old furniture, unused holiday decorations and a random assortment of cleaning and maintenance supplies, yet no ladder was immediately evident. Off in the distance, behind all the junk, they could just barely make out the cavernous entrance to what she assumed was the temple. 

"Yeah, that'll do alright. You'll have to teach me that trick sometime."

~~~

Jeff turned to find Junior standing next to him, inquiring if he could help. Jeff decided to take the conversation in another direction. 

"Junior, your parents were pretty well off, no? Well off enough to send you to the best schools, I assume?"

Delia stared at Junior for a moment, then at Jeff, then back at Junior. She blinked twice, held up a finger, then reached into her pocket, fishing around until she found a somewhat dilapidated tea bag. She dropped it into her cider and took a long slurp. 

“No, I had a private tutor. How did those girls get up there?”

He called up to the girls. “Are you two alright? If we got a rope, could you two climb down?”

“I have some rope in the car,” he said to the policeman. “We were going to use it to replace the rope-tow on the bunny hill at the chalet.”

"It's...not really a trick I can teach," Maeve admitted, looking around. "I'm not seeing anything tall enough to block the view of a ladder, so I would guess if there is one, it is on its side?"

She began winding around the various pathways of items, looking down low for any ladders slid between boxes. She guessed that, since the decorations needed a ladder to be put up in the first place, the two might be together.

"What happened to the keepers of the temple?"

~~

Kaelin sneezed again and, despite her better judgment, rubbed her face.

Ian grinned when Emma took his present from off the table -- he'd been hoping it would go to someone who would appreciate it. He watched her and Grace go to their parents, and was contemplating going over to offer a joking apology, when he caught sight of Lauren's expression. 

Immediately, he joined her. "What's up?"

Lauren started, then thrust the envelope into his hands. Ian looked at the contents. "Oh! Uh ..." He chuckled. "Well, it sure is a white elephant gift --"

She swatted his shoulder; lightly, but hard enough to sting. "It's not a real white elephant, is it? Like, not an actual elephant we're going to have to take care of? In our tiny, cramped apartment and on our non-existent paychecks?"

Ian opened his mouth to protest, to ask who in the world would purchase an actual elephant for a white gift exchange. Before he could, he surveyed the room which contained (or had contained) a talking bull, a talking dog, a man with a limo decked out with Christmas lights and speakers, and two girls on the chandelier, that he was just now noticing. How did they get up there?

All in all, he couldn't blame Lauren for wondering.

"Maybe it's just a charity thing," he said. At Lauren's scowl, he shrugged helplessly. "Your guess is as good as mine right now, Lauren. I'm gonna see if they need help with those girls on the chandelier."

"What?" Lauren said, but he was already leaving.

Upon getting closer, Ian saw that the situation already had a few people assisting. Lacking any talents that would be of any particular use in helping the girls down, he headed towards Emma and her family.

---

Lauren toyed with envelope anxiously. She was probably overreacting, but this evening had not gone at all like she had expected. 

She started walking, maybe back toward the chair she had been sitting in before, just to be out of the way of the current chandelier kerfuffle, when she nearly bumped into someone.

"Excuse me --" she realized it was the young woman who had confronted the bull. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

"Young Miss Kaelin normally would be able to get the two of them down with no assistance required. But she seems to be reacting to something in the air. Quite possibly the pepper spray. So climbing down is likely not an option at this time." Jeff replied with a shake of his head. 

"So a private tutor, huh? Shame, did they even try to teach you proper etiquette and manners, or did you miss those lectures?"

~~

Ainsley decided to search along the basement walls, figuring that if you had to lay a ladder down somewhere, that would be the place.

"Far as anyone knows, they died of old age mostly. There are rumors that their descendants still inhabit the area, but if they do, they keep to themselves. Better for us that they do, some of them were extremely powerful. The Lore says that they even possessed the ability to control your mind." 

“Failed to teach manners? That is a bold statement, sir. One for which I will require an explanation. But at the moment, please attend to these young ladies. At the academy do they teach you to make small talk and insult people when two young ladies are in need of assistance? We need to make a plan to catch them if they fall. Ms. Kaelin doesn’t look well.”

Jeff sighed and crossed his arms. "Kaelin dear, do you intend on falling anytime soon?"

"Nope, I'm okay for now, but I'll let you know!" She replied through her coughs. 

"So, here are our options Junior, we do it your way. Get the rope, tie it off to the chandelier, and risk them falling. Or we make a makeshift trampoline out of these table cloths here and wait for them to fall. That's a nearly 25-foot drop; these are paper thin cotton. While I doubt very much that either of these girls weighs much, the total kinetic energy from that drop would render our tablecloths useless at best."

Jeff paused to gather his breath and collect himself before diving back in.

"At worst, it could cause them to panic, and then we'd have a serious problem on our hands. Alternatively, we could wait calmly for five more minutes for Ainsley and Maeve to return with a ladder and remove them carefully. As for your manners, you insulted the honor of Mr. Norro by treating him like a common beast. I do expect that he will be receiving an apology from you by the end of tonight, or you and I will have more words." Jeff uncrossed his arms, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a business card, extending it in the direction of Junior. 

"My badge number is 2-8-2-Romeo-Delta-3-1-3. My supervisors name and contact information is on the card, feel free to file a complaint." 

((OOC: Lady Arwen is aware of my use of her character and does approve))

“That will come in handy,” he said, taking the extended business card and turning away. “But with all deserved respect, I suggest you lack imagination. The table cloths are not the only material in this room.” Junior had walked to the large windows and deep red drapes. “Ms. Death, with your permission,” he said, but without exactly waiting for said permission, he yanked on a heavy drape, causing the thin loops at the top to tear and the rest of the drape to come floating down. “I’ll pay for the damages.” He then resumed speaking to the officer. “Besides, as brave as these ladies are, I suspect having a safety net would cause the young ladies far more peace of mind than not having one. Once this net is in place, we shall, as you suggest, wait calmly for the ladder. This drapery will be plenty thick enough to do the job. Would any of the other gentleman please assist? Mr. Baxter, and Mr. Grayson, perhaps? And you as well, Officer Romeo? And while we wait for the ladies, perhaps you can explain exactly who this Mr. Norro is?”

Delia was just taking another long slurp of her still-smoking tea when Junior attacked her curtains, and she nearly had smoke come out her nose (she also made a note to speak to whoever disrespecting person had gotten curtains cheap enough to have tabs for the hanging). She gave him a death glare, then turned her back on his destruction. 

"Whoever taught him 'manners' clearly got it mixed up with 'money'," she muttered to Jeff, resolving that, no matter what Junior did, she would keep to her post directly below the chandelier. 

After being dismissed, the bull dashed to the doors and made it outside with only slight difficulty. He plunged his head into a snowbank and shook it around; the actions were repeated until he had stopped sneezing and he suspected his eyes were only watering because of the cold. It took some creative maneuvering, but he was able to get the front door open after a few minutes and trotted back inside, much refreshed and with a new determination to be on his best behaviour and so prove his new friend's confidence was not unfounded. He spied the man himself in a group looking up at the ceiling, where there seemed to be some sort of problem, and bounded over to see if he could help.

"I believe I am fully recovered now!," he said, thrusting his head into the circle. "May I offer any assist - oh," the bull cut off as he identified the man holding a large quantity of fabric. Him.

--
"Thank you, sir!" Moira called out as Jeff Evans moved on to the next crisis. Her companion, meanwhile, had followed her advice and disappeared outdoors to find a snowbank. She carefully wedged the cylinder under her arm and opened the package she had selected for herself; it appeared to be a small device on a bracelet, perhaps a small mirror? I'm not sure I would've called this pretty enough for ornamentation, nor does it seem to reflect well enough to be of much use. Nevertheless, she fit the band on her wrist and took a closer look at the device itself - there were some strange bumps along the edge and she gingerly tapped one. She gasped as the device flashed and showed an image of a cloud with some snowflakes and the characters "30F" below. What magic is this? After a moment, the image faded, so she carefully pushed another bump - a picture of the moon (in its current phase) appeared, along with the notation: "Moonset: 9:07 AM". It too faded after a moment. What a curious and yet wonderful device! She was about to try the next bump along the face when someone stopped right next to her.

Posted by: @arin
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

"Oh! I apologise! I didn't realise I was in the way," Moira said in a rush. "I was fascinated by my gift - have you ever seen anything like it before?" She thrust her wrist in front of the woman's face excitedly.

Angie couldn't help smiling as Grace opened the small silver box.  The girl's eyes grew wide as she pulled out a delicate gold and silver necklace adorned with three cherry blossoms.  "How pretty!" Grace gushed.  "Can you put it on me, Mommy?"

Grace held her hair aside as Angie crouched and obliged.  Angie felt a slight tingling as she handled it, but dismissed it.  But surely this was far too expensive a gift for an exchange such as this.  "Be very careful with that, sweetheart," she whispered. 

"Okay, Mommy," Grace replied.  "It's perfect."

And so it was. Grace loved jewelry such as this.

"It feels really special, Mommy," Grace added, gently touching the necklace.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know.  It just...does."

Angie wondered if her daughter had felt that strange sensation she had, but was interrupted by Emma's cry of "Look at me, Mommy."  Their youngest had torn open her gift and began playing enthusiastically, if not very musically, on a bright yellow kazoo.  Grace looked in the box her sister had chosen, pulled out a red kazoo, and joined in. Angie wasn't sure whether to join in - there were more kazoos in the box - plug her ears, or apologize to those around them. But her daughters were having a wonderful time.

----

Dan was enjoying his family's antics but had one eye on the chandelier where Kaelin and another young lady hung. He knew Kaelin well enough to understand that under normal conditions she was fine, but he'd overheard some of the conversation about this time being different. When Junior asked for his assistance he excused himself and went over to him.

"Making a safety net just in case?" he asked.  "Perhaps we could also put some furniture cushions down - assuming it's all right with our hostess - as an added layer of safety just in case?"

"I'm sure the lore is fascinating," Maeve said, bending down giving a flat metal piece a tug. It gave slightly, coming out from between the boxes enough for her to ascertain that it was a fruit picking ladder.

"Found one!" she exclaimed, straightening up. "Grab an end, and let's go."

"Now we're cooking with bacon grease!" Ainsley exclaimed as she grasped the front end of the ladder and maneuvered it up the stairs and back into the main hall of the Mansion. Arriving there just in time to see Junior attempt to make a trampoline out of Delia's drapes. 

"Found a ladder!" Ainsley called out to the group as they approached. 

Jeff, for his part, had held both his tongue and his ground as Junior commenced with his arts and crafts. His only movement during this short period was to nod in agreement with Delia's whispered burn. Then, just on cue, the women returned with a ladder in hand. 

"Oh, Junior, meet my new friend Mr. Norro. Now, as I've said before, you two have some things to discuss." Jeff said, gesturing towards the Bull.

"Oh, and it would be preferable if you had this conversation somewhere out of Maeve's way. She's got some little girls to rescue." Sergeant Jeffery Evans added with a smirk.