No Knock For Room 206

[The Spider]

Another gift. Emphasis on another. Spider didn't waste her energy on a tracking spell. A spell easily done, considering all the items in the basket. Any one of them she could have placed in a circle and enchanted to behave as a compass. Could have. But she had no doubt the compass would lead her to where she went anyway on instinct.

Room two-oh-six. The one who resided behind the numbered door was the only one here who would leave such a basket. Father would never. Not filled with those items. And Donald Blake? No doubt the man was keeping his distance after his ill-made bargain to be led out of the glade. No one else knew her here. So Spider was nearly certain. Despite her warnings about the Fae, Father's noontime companion had bequeathed to her another holiday gift.

It called for reciprocation. The question was did she have to reciprocate or did she choose to? The answer was unknown. Rest assured what Spider gave in return she deemed a fitting exchange.

This time Spider did not knock. Instead she placed the basket in front of Gwen's door. Set at the very center of the doorway with the back of the basket touching against the wood. Before she released the handle she drew on the power of the web marking on the underside of her right wrist. Channeling the energy into the basket with two crisply spoken words. "Ontvangen Gwen." Should anyone else attempt to pick up the basket or any of its items other than Gwen they would find it wouldn't lift from the floor.

Her task complete she went back down to the first floor and into her room.

As for the basket. It was the basket Gwen gave to Spider. All of the items Gwen had placed inside were removed. Including the grass. Those gifts had been exchanged for what Spider deemed proper gifts in return. All freshly purchased. One item was shaped like an egg but it most certainly was not to be used as an egg. It was battery powered and it hummed at three different speeds depending on how the switch was set. Surely the package would explain its proper use. Another was a pink rubber duck with a boa around its neck. It was meant for pleasant bath-time massage. The third item resembled candy. In its own way. Five sweet flavors of that were meant to please more than just the one who tasted it on their tongue. The fluffy white 'grass' used to line the bottom of the basket was actually a pair of fuzzy handcuffs. Keys enclosed of course.

First Spider had delivered Gwen and man and now this. It wasn't because Spider was lewd or sex-crazed. Valentines Day was the holiday of lovers. Easter, at least the portion of it celebrated by rabbits and eggs, was a holiday of fertility. One good turn deserved another in both cases. She felt what she'd put in the basket for Gwen was warmly fitting.

She did wonder how many such return gifts Gwen would receive before the woman lost courage to continue initiating such exchange.

[Gwendolyn Zoi]

She had tried to be sneaky! She just wasn't as good at it, as some people were. And she did not know that no one else would of been thoughtful to gift a basket to Spider. Although it was probably going to take a lot, a very much lot, to get Gwen not to deliver gifts, to Spider's door.

After being in the bar, she was on her way back to her room, when she spotted the basket in front of her door. Oh! Someone basketeded her! She let out a squeal, before she moved quickly on those stiletto's, stopping once she reached the door. She carefully knelt down, and looked at the basket, oh look a rubber ducky. She hadn't ever seen one like that before, and she picked up the basket, she had thought to spread everything out in the hallway, but a part of her wanted her gift all for herself. So she stood up with basket in hand, and then she opened her rood, and went inside.

Once inside her room, she would move over to the couch, and dump the basket out in front of her. The first thing she picked up was the egg. Her head tilting and re-tilting, this did not look like any egg that one would eat. It was way to hard for that, as she moved it this way and that, she must of hit the switch because the egg came to life in her hands. She jumped up dropping the egg, as she called out, "The egg's alive..the egg's alive." After a deep breath, she moved over to where the egg was vibrating on the floor. She looked at the egg as if it had lost it's ever loving mind, before bending and snatching the egg up, her arms jiggling from the egg, as she looked around it until she found the switch, and clicked it to off.

Tossing the egg upon the couch, she was rather scared of it now, she would decide she needed back up to figure out about that stuff. Oh she had a feeling, that people she knew would be able to help her. Those poor poor people. She could of asked Spider, but she didn't want her to know that Gwen hadn't a clue about any of the gifts! She didn't want to offend her!