It took about two, maybe three hours for Naea's patience to run out. Rhea had been expecting it, had been watching the parasitic Stygian carefully for the tell-tale signs: lashing tail, gnashing teeth, pawing at the ground, looking balefully at nothing. So the actual explosion, when it happened, wasn't really a surprise. It was still startling, though. The strange tinny music of the rose maze was abruptly split by a shriek of sheer frustration and fury. "DONE! DONE DONE DONE DONE," Naea snarled, wheeling on the nearest hedge and leaping into it, jaws and mandibles snapping, emanating pure hunger and hate. Rhea paused in her map-making, warily watching Naea's assault on the hedge, just in case something in the maze took exception to Naea's actions. Naea tore their way through the hedge like a weed whacker, their tail snapping at the air for a moment before they vanished into the hole they'd made. For a moment, the tinny music faltered; it sounded like someone coughed, then giggled.

The tea garden was immaculate, at least relatively. The tea setting was sumptuous, largely because Rhea had smoothly taken charge while Naea glowered in the background, huffing with pointed annoyance every time Rhea donated some of their hard-earned treats to the party effort. Just one more thing, according to the sign. One little eensy weensy itsy bitsy thing. The instant Rhea started arranging the mome raths on the tray, Naea exploded. "Cannot have! Will not share!" the parasitic Stygian hissed, all the hair running down their spine bristling impressively as Naea snarled at the sign, drool trailing from their snarling mouth. The mome raths huddled together in the center of the tray, trying to climb on top of each other and largely failing. "Naea," Rhea said sharply, as the sign... bristled? (could a sign bristle? nevertheless, Rhea got the distinct sense that the sign was bristling, its edges fuzzed as if with rising splinters) in return. "They're not yours, dearheart."

"Don't you dare," Rhea hissed, grabbing Naea's face with both hands. The parasitic Stygian's cheeks were puffed out a bit, as if their mouth was full; a bit of technicolor fluff protruded from between their teeth. "Spit it out. Now." Naea hissed and said... something, though they were also keeping their jaws clamped shut even as Rhea tried to force their mouth open. Whatever Naea said, it was thoroughly muffled by a mouthful of mome rath. Lovely, fluffy mome rath, which Rhea would normally have been completely fine feeding to Naea. But this was different. She needed this one. Naea's jaws worked, and Rhea growled. "Spit it out!" Without warning, Rhea released Naea's face, turned, and slapped Naea on the back, as hard as she could. Naea wheezed, hacked, and coughed a lump of soggy fur into the grass. Rhea snatched it up immediately. The mome rath was sodden but seemed otherwise all right. Hopefully. "No," Rhea said sternly turning back to Naea, who was still coughing, their tail

Zephyrus hadn't been sure about even attending the events at the Dusk Coliseum; just being there, seeing the mostly friendly mingling of Treats and Stygians made him uneasy. And that, in turn, annoyed him. He hadn't asked to be involved in Royal Vanilla's obsessive vendetta, yet he was also afraid of her anger being turned on him. Would being at these games be viewed as a betrayal? He was really, really tired of thinking that way. Actually participating in a challenge had seemed much too dangerous - calling attention to himself wasn't a comfortable thought. And yet, when he saw one particular challenge... Well, it had been a long time since he'd last picked up a needle. The arena featured a table strewn with different kinds of fabric, and a pink Stygian was already at work when Zephyrus entered. They offered him a smile that seemed more companionable than competitive, and something in Zephyrus' heart eased a little. He'd done a lot of sewing, before - he didn't trust anyone else

This time, Naea had Rhea read the challenge before accepting it. "Nope, no paper in this one," Rhea said, her eyes still bright with amusement. (Naea hadn't decided if they would forgive her yet for the outburst of laughter after the homework challenge.) "Go ahead." "Better be true," Naea muttered. Their mouths still felt weirdly dry from the previous challenge. But, true to Rhea's word, there was no paper in sight - only water and grass and intriguing ripples in the water. Catching fish! Yes! That was something Naea could do. Well, Naea could do /anything/, but at least this was closer to something they actively enjoyed. "Will catch biggest," they informed their challenger, who had... what, a stick with a string on it? What was that? /Stupid./ Naea waded out into the water in a series of graceless splashes, their tail arching up over their back as they scanned the water's surface. "Fish fish fish," they said, very quietly. "Come here, fish fish." Nothing happened. But Naea was

Naea hadn't paid much attention to the challenge they'd accepted - it was a challenge, right?! Surely they would defeat whatever it was handily, and... well, they weren't sure what happened after that, but Rhea had said what mattered was having fun and good sportsmanship, whatever that was. They grinned at their opponents - two of them! how fun! - and waited for someone to yell "FIGHT". Instead, a stack of papers dropped down in front of each of them. Naea stared at it. They were only vaguely aware of what paper was for, and extremely confused as to why someone would have it in such vast quantities. "What," they said, flatly. "Who can do the most homework!" the announcer declared, and made a dramatic gesture that sent the other two scrambling desperately over their pile of paper. "Homework is what??" Naea snarled, tail lashing. "Make... home? Work to make home? What?" The announcer just grinned brightly and backed away. Naea glared at the challengers. Two of them had seemed fun a

This was not her forest. Rhea folded her arms and glared at the woods around her, all monochromatic other than sharp slashes of red here and there, forming odd symbols on the bark. She didn't know how she'd gotten here, but she was damn well going to get out as soon as possible. "Let me out. I'm not playing a game," she warned, walking over to the nearest marked tree. After a moment, she slashed at it with her claws, and- The world stuttered, and she was back where she started, everything exactly as it had been before her attack on the tree. Rhea's eyes narrowed to slits. "Fine," she said, shortly, and stalked forward. As she moved, odd thoughts bubbled up... inside her head? Around her? It was difficult to tell. Questions, odd ones she never would have thought of herself. Nonsensical ones. /Are you a nightmare consciousness?/ "Yes. Let me out of here." The trees shifted. She was not, in fact, out of here. /Do you identify yourself by shape, color, name-/ "What? That's