Malcolm wanted to ask more questions when Shelby admitted being in a painting all day. His brain was overwhelmed with things he wanted to know. Did she get tired like normal? Did it take a lot of energy? She said she brought food but if she ate food she painted what would happen? Where would you go to the bathroom...

”It sounds really fun. Well, rolling down stairs seems a little painful, but the rest sounds cool!” he grinned.

He considered the treasure and shook his head. ”If it turns back to paint it may just be messy in the long run. I like the video game strategy. Defeat all bad guys, move up! That also stops us from just running past them as quick as possible and avoid actually trying out these weapons.” he shifted his bow, making sure he understood how it functioned. The last thing he needed was being suck with a safety on while staring down evil skeletons. He doubted his charisma points could overcome that in a painting.

Suddenly, the paint monsters came into view. Mal raised his crossbow and took aim, ”Shooting on the right.” he announced just in case. He figured it was worth staring where he was attacking in case she ran forward. He did not want to be responsible for impaling the mutant who got them in here.

The top of the skeleton separated from the bottom with a pop, but the bottom half continued to wiggle and move forward. Ah, that seemed problematic. ”Question: how does one actually stop the animated dead?” he wondered.

She nodded. Yep! That was the gist of it. "Okay!" Was her response to his warning about his action. She readied her spear as he fired.

"Oh." She blinked as the bony legs continued to stagger forward. Almost gently, Shelby reached her spear out and poked them. They fell over in a heap and bones scattered everywhere. "I feel like that is a question I should have prepared for more before coming up with this idea." She grinned sheepishly. "I guess they can't really do much if we take the heads and arms off, right?" At most they would just be able to shamble around awkwardly chest bumping into things. That wasn't nearly as scary.

She could hear more creaking up ahead, and since she was holding the longest weapon and also the torch, she took point.

There were a few more up ahead that were just as easily dispatched as the first, before they encountered their first set of hallways leading off in different directions. One on the left, one on the right, one straight ahead. "Which way?" She turned to him for an answer, since he was her partner on this adventure. Once picked, she'd head in that direction lighting the way up head for them to see. They soon came upon three more skeletons, and two doors on either side of the hallway.

Shelby struggled with the first one she speared, since her weapon got caught between it's ribs, and a weird dance began between the two of them. Up close, the skeletons weren't as scary as she had thought them to be at first. Well, except for the glowing eyes. She kicked herself for that one. She pushed her target back into a wall with her spear and got in a little closer to try and kick its legs off.

"How're you doing over there?!"

Fighting living skeletons was definitely in the top ten cool things Malcolm had ever done. He had a crossbow! He was in a painting! This was amazing.

The eyes of the nearest skeleton glowed. Squee. So cool.

”Detatch limbs, got it. Let’s bring them down! Hmm, we need some type of attack phrase that sounds cool...” he considered while they battled forward. There were some of the usual ones like “Move out!” Or he could go military and say things like “on your six!” What ended up coming out was a mixed up assortment of comments. ”Mine!” he blasted one of the wiggly guys and watched as it crumpled to the ground.

They took a right and moved on steadily. Shelby was doing pretty good herself minus the stick spear at the end.

”This level wasn’t so bad. I mean, once you hit them they’re kinda funny,”[/color] he decided. He nudged a floppy hand out of the way and frowned as it flipped him off.

She shook a rib cage from the tip of her spear and rejoined him. Attack phrase? Hm. She tried one out. "Here comes Justice!" Hm, she wasn't sure.

"Objection!" No, wrong setting. "Baka!" Shelby cringed, flicking a wiggling finger bone off her shoulder.

"Welcome... to your DOOM!"

She gave up with a shrug. She was out of trendy catchphrases to spout.

They came to the end of the hallway eventually with two doors on either side. She eyed the left hand one for a moment before glancing at the right. "Should we just open then at the same time?"

Depending on the door they chose to open, there would be a giant lumbering skeleton on the right side in a bedroom of sorts, and three skeletons on the left in a room filled with barrels.

She tried to prep herself and her spear before they chose, slightly regretting her choice of weapon at that point. It was pretty hard to stab things that couldn't die from being stabbed!

Mal considered both doors as they approached and nodded. ”We may as well. I think we’ve established the danger level so far and other than being creepy, I don’t think these guys can really hurt you. I mean, you didn’t paint any weapons on them, did you? That could change things”

The giant skeleton he found when opening the door seemed pretty self explanatory. He readied the cross bow, took aim, and shot. The torso hit the ground with a rather substantial thin that made the ground wiggle. A giant arm swatted his way and he ducked behind the door. Thunk! ”I stand corrected. Giant skeleton arms might do damage with poor timing.” he bolstered the crossbow and picked up a discarded skeleton arm. Then he launched into the room.

”Yeehaw!” he threw the bone into an empty eye socket and then jumped onto the giant arm like he was ready for a mud wrestling competition. The arm clumsily flopped as it tried to free itself.

"I don't think I did!" She shouted, while struggling with three skeletons pinned like olives on her spear. She had to angle the shaft up so that they couldn't just keep walking straight into her. She might have been concerned for a moment had she not head the distinct 'Yeehaw!' from her companion.

Levering her spear up a little more she pushed forward into her room until she could wedge it firmly into the wood of a barrel. Three wiggling skeletons were now trapped; impaled on her spear. She huffed a bit from the effort before using her torch to start whacking them off of her weapon again.

She was sweating a little as she came back out with her spear freed, to see what Mal had been up to. She was carrying a femur tucked under one arm. A back up weapon!

"Just barrels in my--Jesuschrist that one is bigger than I remember!"

Malcolm could have been worried about the danger. He could have been concerned that the giant arm was trying to find a way to swat him free like an annoying fly. But when Shelby entered the groom he grinned and waved at the skeleton. ”Shiny, right?! Hey, have you tried taking selfies in here? Will it show up on my phone later? This would make the best photo for my fan page!” he exclaimed.

Obviously, if her room had barrels, that meant they were facing the ever impressive boss battle. The second Skelton arm tried scoring toward Shelby. Undead fingers rattled unhappily.

”Can we get background music for the next level? I’m thinking something kinda space odyssey-ish, but a little punk edge? Do you like music?” he grabbed one of the fingers and started disconnecting them one by one. The skeleton wiggled unhappily as it started losing mobility.

"You know, I've never thought of that before. I bet they would show up." She dug for her phone in her bag, pulling it out and flipping the camera on with the press of a button. Turning around she started trying to angle it so that they were both in the picture at the same time. She eventually ended up with a picture of him stuck to the giant bone arm while it was flailing about in a blur trying to get him off, and her grinning face peeking into the frame from the bottom and side, while the second bone arm lunged for her.

Uhoh!

She was ungracefully smacked into the floor, though she was happily able to keep a grip on her phone. The arm couldn't really do much other than try to smoosh her into the ground. "Selfies work!" Was her grunt of a reply, as she wriggled herself into a better position to wrestle with the skeleton arm.

"I've never tried music, either! I can probably bring some up on my phone." It was an interesting concept, if she had understood him correctly. Like background music for their levels? She wondered if she could make music boxes and such, and if they would play music like a real one. Or... could she just set theme music to paintings?

A bony finger just about knocked the wind out of her. "Oof!"

...Maybe those were thoughts for another time.

Keeping in mind how her adventure partner seemed to be dismantling is bone arm, she tried to adopt his strategy by first tackling the finger that seemed to want to slowly try to impale her. It was actually surprising how easily the bones popped apart when there was nothing actively holding them together.

"I like music quite a bit!" She shouted, dodging another finger that was aiming for her face. "Though I don't know anything modern, so it's either oldies of you'll have to choose something!"

Malcolm tried not to look TOO excited at the prospect of selfies, but damn if he wasn't looking forward to the end results! He did his best to smile while Shelby posed, flinching as she fell to the floor. Then he continued making the most of removing fingers. With the skeleton dismantled he was finally able to fish for his own cell phone.

"I could probably fish something up. I don't know what my music is set to right now....Oh, FOB, that could work."

Immortals started ringing through the room as Mal picked up a humerus bone and took a swing at the skeleton's head. It groaned unhappily and giant jaws chomped to try and bite him.

"So, we stop this guy--" when the mouth opened, he crammed the bone in quickly and locked the jaws in place. Finally, the room was still, and he faced his companion. "That means level 2 now, right?"