Discordian Promise

As Marked focused on the Rain, he saw that it was actually a mix of substances. The most noticeable part of the rain were the books, falling and twisting all over, before smacking the ground in various positions. Among the rather heavy books dropping with thuds were what appeared to be rose petals, fluttering down more slowly. It was difficult to see more, because of the liquid rain, which was a dark red color, like Fruit punch, or blood...

While they were standing there, a sudden gust of wind caused Compass to a bunch of red raindrops right in the eyes.

"Eek!" Skitterbuzz squeaked in surprise. "It's raining everything!" she exclaimed, trying desperately to scoot backwards from underneath the other ponies who had inadvertantly squished her against the floor from trying to look through the door...

"IT'S RAINING BOOKS & BLOOD!!!" Marked declares as he moved quickly to get out of the rain. Or finding some cover for the stuff...

Midas' smile doesn't falter for even an instant as he skips out into the room. "BOOKS! I like this room!"

He definitely is cognizant of the blood, but he doesn't seem to care at all.

When Midas gets inside and closer, he sees that the books are all made of some plastic substance( probably so they would still be readable after the rain.)

The wind-up ponies, who had been gathering up the books and petals, turned sharply at Midas's cry, and slowly approached him.

Midas waved brightly at the wind-ups. "Hi, miracle workers! Whoop WHOOP! Are these your books? Can I help you pick them up or would you rather do it alone?"

The three stood still as Midas spoke. Then, when he was finished, one of the wind-ups approached mechanically. When it reached Midas, it said " Those books are our tools, our duty. Not yours."

Midas' face fell just a bit, but he nodded to them anyway. "Okee dokee! I'll tell my friends to leave 'em alone too then." He then began to leave, but before getting all the way back, he turned around and stage-whispered "I believe in miracles too!"

With that, he moved back to the group, hair, fur and scarf covered in blood drops. "The stuff is theirs and they don't want our help picking it up. Damn it."

OOC:

Sunlit Wave lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Do you think they'll let us pass?" he asks Midas.

Midas considered for a moment, then shrugged. "Prolly. I dunno. I think they mainly don't want us wanting the rain, which is a shame because books are cool and rose petals are yummy, but what's theirs is theirs."

As they were talking, the rain stopped.

"I don't think they will," Skitter stated flatly, eyeing Midas' blood-covered coat. "Also... I've seen it rain blood before. You're not supposed to get in it, it's a bad omen," she said in a worried tone.

Midas giggled at Skitter. "Whaaaat? That's silly! Blood is just air that congealed inside a heart! Blood is happy! So raining blood is a weird thing, but it's sanguine weird. It's happy and energetic, like the wind."

"So then, by your logic, gore humor would be the most happy and joyful brand of humor around... SO MUCH BLOOD! Is used in that humor type." Marked snarked.

Skitterbuzz started to object to Midas' reasoning; and then it occured to her. Nobody had ever told her why it was a bad omen. It wasn't a Secret, as far as she knew; she simply hadn't ever thought of questioning it. She resolved to ask Sunlit about it later. "....Uuhhh, okay, whatever. What do we do about the, uhm 'clowns'."

"Try to just avoid them... Unless they start to attack us." Marked suggested.

"That seems sound to me." Sunlit Wave remarks. "As long as we don't touch the books, it doesn't seem like they'll have a problem with us. Having said that, if they tell you to do something, follow their orders, just in case."

"Just wish I could get the joke behind the whole blood thing... Didn't seem like a gore gag to me... Yet at the same time just doesn't add up. I mean if it was blood, sweat, & tears that rained down... That'd be a solid joke. But Blood & Books... Just don't get what punchline they're going for." The Critic rambles to himself.

Raining blood probably counted as a Wonder. As she rubbed the red drops from her eyes with the end of her battered cloak, however, she decided to disqualify it. Wonders were supposed to be amazing, and elicit a feeling of magic. This just made her feel a bit ill.

"I don't have any problems with not touching their things, but where are we going to? At least Wrench had a tunnel we should follow. I didn't much past the giant room..."

She looked up, a red stain standing out against pink fur around her eyes.

"Ooh, ooh, I know! I know! The Miracle Workers all share one heart and one brain that's made of chaos and it's up in the ceiling. And so the blood and the knowing rains down and they pick 'em up!" Midas nodded. "So no wonder they don't want us taking their stuff. I wouldn't want someone taking my brain and heart stuff. Dunno what the petals are. Maybe they're collecting them for Compass. She's a rose, they're rose..."

While the group was pondering this, they were all shoved inside, and the door slammed shut.

The Critic chuckles at this that was a easily seen gag coming...

"The buck?" Midas whips around to stare at the door and blinks a few times. After a moment, he just turns away and starts walking through the room, not towards the wind ups, but not going out of his way to avoid them either.

Compass laughed, a blush showing through the stains. "Different type of-" she began, cut off when a sudden something pushed her into the room. She looked around, half-expecting to see Discord or something just as dangerous.

She follows Midas, still wary,making in the room in more detail.

Spoiler:

From where Compass is, it looks like the place is just one giant room, made of some precious metal like silver or platinum. The boxes are all stacked neatly at the sides, not leaving much space to hide for anyone who chooses to do so. Up above is a shimmering fog.

As they walked into the room, Compass can see that the three are stacking the books up neatly, and sweeping the rose petals into a big pile away from them. One of other ones (not the one that approached Midas earlier) looks up and says in a robotic voice, "Do you want something? Are you hear to test us, Lord of Laughs?" If a robotic monotone could sound anxious, this one did.