[Freezair]

((I'm busy today, so I'm posting in a lull between activities. I'll get pictures of my trio up here later this evening, but they're original Halloween Riddle Kuhnas.))

The warm, baking sun of Spring had Terrace Park in its hold, and today, the Terrible Trio of Kuhnas--as they called themselves, among other adulating nicknames--were taking advantage of it by participating in the special, Evelon-wide Egg Hunt. They could look anywhere in Evelon! All across the continents! But... they preferred to keep it close to home, to be honest. It was easier for the three of them to meet. And they were meeting someone here themselves, some people who were going to form a team with them.

Mary and Shelly held the baskets, keeping them aloft in the air via glowing psychic hands. Mary actually had a pair of hands--one held two baskets, and the other held her cell phone, on which she watched a video on EvelonTube. She seemed to be more wrapped up in the video than she did in the egg hunt, despite Fredrick trying to command them.

"Alright, girls! Over this way! Yes, thank you! We want to be visible to our partners when they appear! Chins up! Good impressions! ...Mary! Can't you pause that video?"

"But I just started watching," Mary peeped.

Shelly, who was busy managing her own jangle of baskets, butted in over Mary's shoulder. "Yeah. You need to phone home back to this planet! Get smart and stow the smartphone! ...Err, but out of curiosity, who's winning this week?"

"...So far, Battim," Mary nodded.

"Aww, yay! He hasn't won in a while. ...But we can find out later! Fredrick does have a point."

The Nightwalker Kuhna sighed. A very normal paw stretched behind her to open the bag at her sighed, and she tucked the phone inside. "Who do you suppose our partners will be? I hope they're nice folks..."

"I'm sure they'll be very kind," Fredrick said. "They won't bite, I'm sure! So put on a smile for us, Mary!"

[Mousen]

They were a strange group, whether they were stranger than the three kuhnas that awaited them within the park remained to be seen. The first figure kept running ahead of the others, she'd stand on her tip-toes for a moment, look around, shake her head and then turn back to her friends. It was almost as if there was a large, orange-haired collie-dog leading them though the park.

"See them yet, Lottie?" The second was a tall, sandy-haired young man who wore a rather childish grin and t-shirt with a 50's style robot printed onto it. Thursday Macloughlin always managed to look like an extremely overgrown ten-year-old.

"Nope, it would help if I knew what I was looking for, though. Still, they can't be far."

"They must have gone. Probably spent all morning waiting for us to turn up. Oops. Nevermind. Let's go home." Gabriel wasn't the cheeriest of souls. To actually get him out of the book store where all three of them worked had been a feat in itself. A mix of blackmail, bribery and begging had been carefully employed by the two of them. In the end, he'd grudgingly agreed, if only to make his co-workers shut up for five minutes.

Thursday shook his head. "Not so fast, Gabe. There's no way you're getting out of this now. I mean, I brought a basket and everything! A basket!" To emphasize his point, he waved it in front of his friend's face.

"Someone, please kill me now."

"Shut up Gabriel--!"

"Don't call me Gabriel, do I look like a bloody angel or something?"

"Be quiet, you two," Thursday hissed. "I think I've found them!"

Gabriel and Lottie fell silent, Lottie because she wanted to make a good impression and Gabriel because there wasn't much point in trying to have an argument with someone who was preoccupied with fixing her hair. "Hi! Excuse me!" The young woman trilled, approaching the three kuhnas. "Are you here for the egg hunt?"

[Freezair]

"Ah, finally!" Fredrick padded up to the young woman with a smile on his face. "Thank goodness you've appeared! My partners are getting rather reckless. ...Oh, you brought your own baskets?" He peered around her to the two following behind the young woman. "Ah. We'd brought some for you! Hoping to make a good impression," he said.

"Wooo! Told you they'd get here," Shelly said. She loped over to Fredrick's side. "Heyo, folks! Name's Shelly. Hope you don't mind working with a couple of Kuhnas! We'll try not to get underfoot, yeah?"

"And I'm Fredrick," Fredrick said, with a bow. "Fredrick will do, thank you. I'm afraid I don't answer to Fred. Just going to get that out of the way first. I don't want any misunderstandings between us."

Shelly looked over her shoulder. "Hey, Mary! Come intro... oh geez."

Sitting on her haunted haunches, with her baskets lying on the floor beside her, Mary had whipped out her phone again and gone back to watching her video. Her mouth silently mouthed the name of the one she was rooting for in the heated game: "Battim! Battim... Battim..."

A large, orange-colored psychic hand suddenly closed around her head. She looked up into its glowing lights with a "Huh?" Devoid of ceremony, the glowing hand hefted her through the air, dropping her with a thump next to Shelly.

"And this critter is called Mary," Shelly grumped. "But keep an eye on her, or she'll run off, we swear."

[Mousen]

"A basket. Just the one." Thursday said, appearing beside Lottie. "I couldn't seem to find any more of them, but Gabe might have something to do with that. He's a grumpy old miser. He's been visited by ghosts of Christmas and everything, but nothing can change his ways. It's very sad really." He added cheerfully, taking an automatic step away from his dark-haired co-worker just in case.

"Don't be an idiot." The woman beside him said with a long-suffering air. She was back to her usual, bubbly self in a moment, though, once Shelly had started speaking. "Hi! Lovely to meet you two, I'm Charlotte, but everyone calls me Lottie. That's Thursday, don't ask about that, by the way. It's a long story."

"Or Thurs, or, y'know, any variation of that. I don't mind."

"Hello, I'm Gabe. Not Gabriel. Anything but Gabriel, if you'd be so kind."

The trio were somewhat surprised as a large glowing hand picked up and dropped the kuhna. Any normal person may have been more surprised than 'somewhat', but when your everyday job consisted of convincing clingy ghosts to move on and informing customers of the buy-one-get one free offer they now had on Penguin paperbacks... Well, it took a lot more than a glowing hand to shock them. "Ah. Y-you're psychic then. Can't believe I didn't notice that earlier."

[Freezair]

"Oh, yeah. We all are," Shelly said. "A lot of people, well, they know us so well they're downright psy-sick of us." She chuckled into her paw. "But as you can see, from Mary here, it comes in hand-y!"

Fredrick rolled his eyes. "She's always like this, I'm afraid. It's a pleasure to meet you, Gabe... I think we have similar mindsets! Here, have this extra basket." Rather than conjure up a telekinetic hand, he walked over to the baskets Mary had dropped and grabbed one in his teeth. With a flick of his neck, he tossed it near Lottie's feet.

"It's... very nice to meet all of you," Mary said. "Um. I'm sorry. I'm kind of shy... If you talk to me, I will talk back, honest. I'm just, um, not good with people..."

"So! Where would you all like to start?" Fredrick asked. "Anywhere is fine by me!"

[Mousen]

Thursday chuckled. "I'd try to come up with some puns myself, but there's not a lot of interesting puns that revolve around working in a bookstore. Uhm, since that's what I do, when I'm not hunting brightly coloured eggs around Terrace Park, that is."

Lottie picked up the basket as it was thrown to her and she struck a pose. "What do you think? Does it clash with my hair?"

"Everything clashes with your hair, Lottie." Thursday said reassuringly.

"Fantastic! Let's go!"

Gabriel nodded. "Great to meet you too." He wasn't at his best in social situations, he managed okay when he was behind the counter at Victoria's, but otherwise Gabe wasn't exactly comfortable around people. Despite appearances, (somehow he always managed to look like a delinquent, an admirable feet considering he didn't have so much as a single tattoo) he honestly preferred books.

"Aw, don't worry about it, Miss Mary. We don't bite! I mean, Lottie doesn't even have proper teeth!" A basket promptly made contact with the side of his head. "Ow!"

"Uhm, why don't we start over there." Lottie pointed toward a cluster of nearby trees. "It looks like there's plenty of hiding spots for eggs there."

[Freezair]

"Someone appreciates my puns!" Shelly hopped up, with a smile on her face like all the world leaders had just declared peace on Evelon. "I think you and I are gonna get along, Thurs. We're gonna get along reeeal good."

Fredrick couldn't help but spare a grin. "Very well! To the landscaping! And let's swing by the water fountain while we're at it. I'm parched."

Mary followed Fredrick over to the fountain, surreptitiously slipping out her phone to continue with her EvelonTube video. Shelly caught her with a stink-eye. Quietly, Mary slunk over to the bushes and began turning over branches in search of eggs.

"Will you look up there?" she quietly asked Lottie. "I'm just a Kuhna. I'm not very tall. You seem like you can see into high places better. But, um. I guess I could climb the trees, but..."

She just shook her head in lieu of finishing the sentence. A red psychic hand appeared over her head, and used it to push some of the branches away from Lottie. "Here. I wouldn't want you to get leaves in your hair," she said.

[Mousen]

"Puns are great! Not everyone appreciates them, though. There was a fisherman in the book store the other day, long story, but after five minutes of 'Does that book reel you in? Are you hooked? Do you have a bookmark, you'll loose your plaice!'. ... Well, I'll just say that don't think my friends were very happy with me." Behind him, Thursday could tell that there was at least two sets of eyes being rolled. He made his way around towards a flower bed that was situated a few feet away from the water fountain, kneeling down he carefully pushed the tulips side to see if there were any eggs hidden underneath their leaves. Thursday was well aware that to anyone passing, he looked ridiculous. He'd never really minded that, though, he looked silly most of the time anyway. That was part of the fun.

Gabe stood awkwardly between the flowerbed and the fountain, occasionally leaning towards the tulips, in case there were any obvious eggs placed on the soil. His sister Mia was never going to let him forget this, she'd find out, somehow. That's what she did. Gabriel was making a distinct effort not to imagine the ridicule he'd be subjected to if Joseph or Salome found out. They weren't on speaking terms, mainly because they both were crazy psychopaths with mad ambitions, but still, family was family.

"Of course, sweetie! Oh. Sorry, habit, y'know? Gotta stop doing that, I sound like my Mum." Lottie giggled slightly. "I'm not that tall, certainly not in comparison with the boys, but..." She spoke absent mindedly, as she searched, almost trying to fill in the silence as she made her way over to one of the trees. As she did so, the hand appeared. "Thanks! Gosh, that's got to be helpful around the house."

The branches, as laden with leaves as they were, had managed to hide something that sat in between a fork in the branches. Something very colourful. "Oh! Found one!" She exclaimed popping the bright pink Easter egg into her basket.

[Freezair]

"Yes. It's very useful to be a psychic," Mary nodded. "You can carry lots of things at once, and you don't have to worry about your arms getting sore. There are other things we can do, too, of course." As if to prove her point about the usefulness, she held up her own basket to accept the egg if need be. "We can see things from far away. And hover. And I'm a cryopath--I can force water in the air to crystallize into ice," she explained. "I like my powers a lot. They're nice. ...Oh!" Her wandering eyes alighted upon a spot of brilliant red, up in the leaves. "I think I spy another egg up there! I think I can get that one..." Her psychic hands worked in tandem to nudge the egg into her basket.

Over by the fountain, Shelly was squealing with laughter. "You're my new favorite," she said, all of her teeth showing. "Oh, are you looking for an egg in there? I think I saw one near the edge there. Root around for it, you'll find it!" Her constrained laughs came out as wheezes.

Fredrick was another eye-roller. "I'm never going to survive today," he said. "Should I just tell you where the egg she saw is, or do you want to find it yourself?"

[Mousen]

"That's amazing! I can't do anything like that myself, my only real talent is with numbers. But, even then I'm not that good. It's useful though, working in a book store and stuff. Oh, and it really annoys Gabe, so that's a plus." With mathematics, Lottie was a bit of a whiz. ... Just don't let her anywhere near a map. If there was any conceivable way she could get lost, or get other people lost, it seemed to happen.

Thursday grinned. "Great! See, Gabe, people like me. You should be taking notes or something!"

"Are you insinuating that people don't like me?"

"No! I never said that!"

Chuckling, Gabe turned back to Fredrick. "I know the feeling." He leaned a little closer to the flowerbed to try and find this egg that Shelley had been talking about, if only to help Thursday, who was looking a little puzzled.

Well, if Mia was going to find out no matter what he did, Gabe might as well make sure he looked properly silly. After a moments searching, which brought him to the edge of the flowerbed, Gabriel returned, awkwardly triumphant with a blue egg clutched in his hand. "Was this the one you meant?"

[Freezair]

"Being good with numbers is just as good as being psychic," Mary nodded. "I'm also good with technology, but more people ask me for help with their computers or phones than they do with psychic stuff. But so much of stuff revolves around numbers... Money, businesses, science, everything. If you're good with numbers, there's no end to what you can do! ...Well, except maybe things that involve other basic talents. Uh..." Mary slunk back, trying to lead them towards a different portion of the tree stand to find more eggs.

"Everyone should like you," Shelly said. "Everyone needs more puns in their life. It's just a fact."

"Heaven help us if it is," Fredrick groaned. "Yes, that's the egg I was talking about. Hmmm... where are Mary and your friend Lottie going? Think we should follow after them? We don't want to get too far separated. Obviously, we wish to strike a balance between searching over a spread-out area and remaining within contact distance of each other."

[Mousen]

"Well, I'm okay with numbers, it does for working stuff out around the store and stuff." Lottie replied, following Mary through the tiny copse of trees. "I'm terrible with computers myself, well, it's probably not my fault but the ones in the shop are on the fritz constantly. It might be the ghosts." She gave a sheepish grin.

"Shame so few of them do."

Thursday feigned offence. "Well, I never!" They were joking, of course.

Gabriel looked around. "I just hope Mary's the one leading, they'll be lost in five minutes otherwise. Lottie has a hopeless sense of direction. ... Should we try and catch them up?"

((Fail post. I would have replied earlier, but I had to study. ^^;;; ))

[Freezair]

"Oh dear. Mary's hardly any better. Her head's in the clouds half the time anyway. She's probably whipped out her phone and started watching videos online again. I think this may be a full-on rescue mission. I... hey!"

Speaking of heads in the clouds, Shelly had taken the incentive to start wandering herself. Away from the water fountains, and away from the trees, she seemed to be heading off towards the playground. Fredrick sprinted after her and sunk his teeth into one of her tails. "Oh no you don't! Come with us. We'd better get Mary and Lottie back."

"Aww, but the playground is such a good hiding spot! They've got a giant wooden cheese that's bound to be full of them! And that's no joke."

"I'm sure you're dying to make all the 'cheesy' jokes in the world about that, but we'd better move. Come on!"

Only a moment too soon, it seemed, for Mary turned around in the copse of trees and realized she wasn't sure which way, exacly, was "out." "Oh d-d-dear," she stuttered. "Ah... do you remember which way we went that lead inside this thing?"

[Mousen]

Gabriel winced. "Brilliant. Forget the eggs, we'll have to spend the rest of the day looking for a kuhna and a walking tangerine." Well, walking tangerine was taking it a bit far, you didn't qualify for 'tangerine' unless you had a spray-tan. ... A clementine, perhaps?

"I swiss we could go look over there."

Gabriel glared.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. The puns just won't go a-whey, I'll never be curd!"

"Would you stop that for a second?"

"I'm trying to come up with a good pun for bree. Shh."

Gabe's resolve melted and he grabbed Thursday by the arm and dragged him towards where Fredrick and Shelley were now stood. Before any more cheese puns could present themselves, he said. "Yes, let's go. They were in those trees a minute ago."

Lottie's smile quickly faded. "Not again. Uhm, I'd say that way, but I'm always wrong. But because I know I'm always wrong, I'd go in the opposite direction, but because I know that, it might be the right direction. ... So, no. I don't have a clue."

[Freezair]

"Hold on." Shelly reached into her bag and withdrew her phone. She tapped the screen with a psychic finger and it awoke. As Fredrick had guessed, she was still in the middle of watching her video. But she minimized the window and started toying with it.

"I think if we stay put, I can download a GPS app. Uhh... do you think that'll work, in the middle of the park? It is a very big park, after all... But maybe the GPS won't know where we are..."

Fredrick's voice, however, cut through the trees. He was calling quite sharply: "Mary! Lottie! Are the two of you in there? Mary!"

"Oh! Fredrick!" Mary's head popped up. The screen of her phone showed a GPS app beginning its download. The red glow of the phone pulsed, as if Mary was helping it psychically accumulate the data faster.

"Come on out!" Shelly called. "We got a giant wooden cheese to explore! Ricotta go! Heh... that was a good one."