[SPADE] I <3 U

Clues? Nah, just wander off and go smell the roses.
Not even cold weather could stop the garden.
Treat your nose with some white tulips,
Follow up with purple pansies,
Then mingle with some yellow roses,
With all those scents, you might need a breather, so take a load off.

[ooc; The students first prompt is to find the location they are meant to meet up. It can be up to you whether this process is long or short. Once they find where they are going I will pop in to give the next clue! Enjoy ]

Graham had picked up his first clue in the middle of the day, purely by accident too. He hadn't realized that someone had signed him up for anything and as he read over the little note - his eyes flicking over each and every word, it didn't take Graham that long at all to really figure out where this little note was referencing. Feeling like he could stretch his legs for a little bit, Graham decided to follow this little note - his feet leading him toward the rose garden.

In truth, the rose garden wasn't a place that he had visited very often. He mostly preferred to stay inside and close to his computer, it was easier that way and he didn't have to deal with people everywhere he looked if he just stayed in his dorm room. Nonetheless as he walked outside, the air was crisp and Graham felt a strange refreshing feeling as he inhaled.

Once his feet found the rose garden though, Graham stopped and looked around - the words 'now what?' echoing through his mind. Was there more people that were supposed to show up? Or was he going to be himself? The questions ran through his mind as he stood at the entrance of the rose garden, wondering if this was it to his little hunt or if there was more to come.

Leo got the first part of the message for the treasure hunt easily. She’d gotten the note as soon as she could, and had grinned broadly about it too. It was all about flowers, and, of course there was only one place on school that could be. Really, her only delay was that she was so new and it took her a while to find the rose garden. That ,and that she’d spent a good while trying to work out exactly what the last bit was on about before getting on with it

It took her a long while. Her sense of direction wasn’t exactly the best out there, but she did eventually get there. Leo noted the messily haired boy who was standing in the middle of the rose garden as she entered from the courtyard (which she had used as a guide). He seemed at least a little disoriented, and that seemed a good sign to assume whether someone was participating in a treasure hunt or not.

She headed over to him a little hesitantly, trying to hold back her enthusiasm a bit to stop what was probably otherwise an inevitable situation- her giving everyone around her throbbing headaches.

Leo paused, confirming her volume to herself quickly in her head, before she spoke to him.

”Hello. You’re in for the treasure hunting too, right?” If not, well, tough on him. ”I think we’re partners. Do you have any idea about that thing about breathers on the clue?”

Graham was minding his own business when suddenly a girl that appeared to be just a little bit older than him (or the same age) walked up to him asking him about the treasure hunt. She was just a bit shorter than him, which caused the young man to look down toward her as he spoke. "Is that what this is? I think I just got this by accident." Graham held the clue in front of him so that Leo could see.

As she asked about the later section of the clue, Graham took a deep breath and looked over the clue once more. "Maybe check by the benches?" Graham offered up to the girl halfheartedly. He wasn't really interested in the idea of this whole scavenger hunt thing, but riddles were fun from time to time. Looking a little hesitant, Graham shrugged and then started to make his way over to some benches nearby without waiting for Leo to reply.

It was no new thing for Leo to be shorter than whomever she was talking to. At least it was still a small height gap between them.

”How did you get in for it by accident?” Her tone was even more skeptical than she’d meant it to sound.  There was probably some perfectly reasonable explanation. Maybe someone else had entered him as a joke or something. Leo nodded upon seeing the clue. ”Yup, that’s the one!” Well, that was good. She hadn’t just walked up to some random guy then.

”Benches?” Leo shrugged. I kind of made sense at least.. Actually, she hadn’t even noticed the benched until then, s she wouldn’t have been figuring out that line of thought anytime soon anyways. Leo took one step after who was already the brains of the pair (if he was the brains, was she the brawn? That seemed wrong), before she veered off to another seat, She figured there wasn’t a lot of point having two of them checking over the same spots simultaneously.

That said, she wasn’t the best at looking for things. He’d probably find whatever it was meant to be first even if it was right under her nose.

GETTING WARMER

There’s nothing that is clearly on the surface of the bench, but perhaps there’s a clue somewhere more discrete…

"Maybe someone from one of the classes I'm in thought it would be funny, I'm not sure. Some people have weird humour nowadays." Graham spoke to Leo like he was an old man un-amused with whatever shenanigan that was going on. As he searched over the top of the bench though, the young man appeared to be perplexed - his eyes quickly dipping to beneath the bench in a natural response to 'checking the benches.' For him that meant the bench and the area all around it.

As he looked and bent down to run his hand underneath the bench, Graham remained silent - offering no friendly conversation to the person that had joined him on this hunt. He truthfully wasn't sure why he was still doing this in the first place, maybe now that the other person showed up he felt this strange sense of responsibility to stay and finish this. Even though some people considered him rude, Graham wasn't completely cold-hearted.

EH LOOK AT DIS!

After a very quick scan of the underside of the bench, Graham sees a note that was very lazily stuck to the seat with a small latch of tape, luckily it wasn’t too windy otherwise the duo would’ve found themselves lost very quickly.

Should Graham choose to read so hastily, it reads:

A mighty labyrinth, the size of which is quite known
The location within though, that is something you must find on your own.
The legends of old had the heroes evade the minotaur
But this new take shall have you seek out the disguised mentor.
Through wit and raw perception will you find what you seek
Trust your eyes, ears, and gut, never be meek.

”That would have to be a pretty weird sense of humor. You sure you didn’t just volunteer by default for something? You know, when teachers tell you about something you can volunteer for and you’re only half listening and end up volunteered somehow? Like that.” Leo quickly gave up on the actual bench top- that took a quick glance to realise there was no note on the glance, and so she turned to looking underneath and at the panelling and knelt down on the ground by the bench. She gave up on that too, soon after. There was still clearly no note attached to the bench. Already she had found herself humming, which was fairly typical.

Leo thus started searching around the bench, namely at the patch of flowers nearby. She thought she had seen something at one point, and reached out to grab it- it turned out to be a fallen petal from a white flower. Her hand caught on the a thorn as she recoiled it, holding the petal, and by instinct she pulled her hand back and sucked the blood off her skin quickly.

”Even just having to search for notes, I’ve managed to screw up already.” She muttered. Hopefully her partner was doing better than her. He couldn’t have cut himself anyway.

As he searched underneath the bench, Graham's fingers and eyes soon collided with a small note tapped on the underside of the sitting area. Peeling it off slowly, Graham stood up and opened up the note - reviewing what it said slowly.

"I typically pay attention in class, so no I don't imagine myself accidentally volunteering for something." What some may take as being harsh, Graham considered the truth. Despite being so abrasive, Graham held the note he found out toward Leo's general direction. "I think this is what we're looking for? Sounds like we have to go the maze next." Graham said to his companion then, his eyes drifting over to the maze in question.

Leo's self deprecation escaped Graham's notice, or more-so he chose not to comment on it - to him she seemed like an odd girl, but not terrible. It could have been have been worse, except from time to time when his partner spoke he did find himself flinching at the volume of her voice.

Leo pulled a slight face at his assessment. She didn't like being handled like that. At all. He sounded like a teacher. She huffed slightly. 
"Well, I only do that in the boring subjects. Maths, Physics, History, that lot." If he found those interesting maybe that'd work as a bit of a payback at least. But really, she  did just see those as being boring.

As he stated that he thought he'd found their clue, Leo breathed a slight sigh of relief (at not having to continue looking under her bench), pushed her way off her knees and walked over to the boy. 

Leo almost snatched the note from his hand to look at.
"What's all this stuff about the Minotaur though? I'm pretty sure even this school doesn't have giant cow men wandering around." 

Leo hadn't noticed herself changing volume before that but her pitch and volume had definitely increased for the start of her commentary. And despite her noticing and trying to quieten her voice some more, she reached the same level with the next comment. 

"That does sound like a maze. Which fits the Minotaur thing, but again that's stupid. Where the heck would a Minotaur be here?" Leo was sometimes glad for her father's career. Most of the people in her class in her previous school had had no idea about any of the Greek myths. Leo had found them out thanks to helping her dad get into auditions for some myth-based drama show. She'd not have a clue about it otherwise. Her last school wasn't the best for interesting things; hence the falling into a doze and accidentally volunteering hypothesis. 

Leo was fairly sure she knew the way to the maze at least from where they were. Hopefully she was right. If not, she was heading off entirely in the wrong direction and she'd rather not appear that stupid to him. Not after what he'd only said a few moments before. 

Graham stared at Leo carefully for a moment, examining her carefully as she mentioned some of the academic subjects she seemed to be interested in. At least, he guessed as much. As Leo read the clue though, Graham shook his head at her mention of the Minotaur - starting a slow walk toward the rose garden maze in question. "I don't think it literally means Minotaur. We might have to see a person though." Graham offered up his guess as more of a statement than anything else. "Maybe one of the teachers here are hiding in the maze? It mentions something about a mentor."

Graham waved his hand at Leo then, an oddly familiar gesture for the boy considering how rude he had been since the two met. Stepping into the maze, Graham reached his hand out toward the grassy wall to his right - letting his fingers lightly glide over the area as he walked. Only slightly intimidated by the idea of a giant horned beast, Graham silently wished that he was on the right track of the clue being someone actually standing in the maze - and not some terrifying being.

Leo didn't notice his visual assessment about her words. And she certainly would never have classifed those as the subjects she was interested in.
Leo sighed a little. It wasn't that she wanted to meet a minotaur, particularly, but to her that did seem better than deliberately seeking out almost any teacher. She'd choose dangerous, terrifying cow beast who realistically had no idea how to deal with personal hygiene over almost any teacher in her previous school any day. Most of the teachers here, too. She knew what her track record for homework deadlines was going to become. Though she would be worried if the school was encouraging them looking for minotaurs.
"Sure let's give up on the minotaur plan."
Leo frowned a bit at his gesture, not sure what he was doing or why he was doing that. In her view at least this guy was not her friend (she would use the word "acquaintance").
She kept her pacings as she entered the maze, glad she hadn't been told she was heading off the wrong way, but also concerned that she was in front. Her sense of direction was par at best and she'd rather not be in charge of it. Graham seemed way more enthusiadtic about the idea of searching for staff members than Leo was.
Unlike him, she kept her hands away from the walls, swinging rhythmically. It only took a few steps of them entering the maze for her to have started whistling (to songs from the Jungle Book). She wasn't even being quiet with it- and with the powers they had between them, that was likely to be at least somewhat annoying.
Leo was, naturally, concerned about the notion of their being a minotaur, but she knew from experience most animals did not like her sonic screams and Leo had a feeling that minotaurs would be no exception. It it really was a minotaur they were looking for, and there were any issues, she'd just yell back at it.
"Do you want to give directions? Just I struggle working out my way around the school building enough, and this is meant to be hard to get around." Leo still wanted to lead. She was their brawn, after all.

CAN YOU NAVIGATE THE MAZE?!

Roll the die (20 sided) to see how lucky you get.

It was odd to Graham that the girl remained ahead of him and as Leo started to whistle the young man soon found himself frowning and wincing slightly - his power quickly going into affect allowing him to perceive hear Leo's whistles at a much lower pitch. As she asked him if he wanted to give directions though, Graham nodded easily still with his hand remaining on the wall to the right of him. "Take the next right," Graham said to Leo then, briefly wondering if something would pop out and try to scare them.

It didn't seem like a completely unlikely thing, but on the same note Graham did think about how this was a school and this was supposed to be some sort of Valentine's day themed event (even though he didn't actually sign up for it). Letting out a light sigh, Graham tried to steel himself for whatever would pop up when they managed to get to... well, where it was that they were going.

[ooc; 15 ]