Kirumi Tojo's Palace | The Ultimate Maid's Failures

[kandata]

By now everyone may be used to find themselves in bizarre locations, between going into palaces and visiting Nekyia. It might not come as a surprise that it has happened again.

What might come as a surprise, though...is how empty this place is.

All around you there's nothing more than a large, gray, featureless expanse. In the distance there seem to be bars, curving upwards to gather so, so high above you, possibly hundreds of miles above, so high it’s hard to distinguish.

It’s a cage. So unfathomably large. You could escape, were you to get to the edges of the cage, but...it would take forever. No matter how you look at it, you're trapped. The atmosphere is so...hopeless. Devoid of anything even remotely positive.

Not that you want to hang around for long, do you? After all, this is someone's palace. Not a place to stick around at. What to do, though?

It’s all so...empty. Silent. Featureless. A flat expanse of hard gray tiles.

Gather together, everyone. Gather and choose a direction. North, East, West, South. All directions look completely identical, but could it affect your time in this place, somehow? Probably not. But all treks start with the first step. Perhaps, if you get moving, you'll progress?

Comments

[destage]

[Sayaka looks around this strange, featureless place and pauses; the people here are definitely ones she's comfortable with if nothing else, but this is definitely not what she's expecting.]

...I've got a bad feeling about this. I've never seen a place so...blank. Please keep your guard up, everyone.

[It's strange. It's really damn strange.

But with a small sword in it's sheath on Sayaka's back, she'll be going to the East to check out what's going on.]

[vogelfrei]

[ McGillis spends a moment looking around, though there is nothing much to see. Hm... ]

Mafuyu's palace was fairly featureless, but this has it beat.

[ Nothing personal. Nothing identifying. Just a feeling of being trapped.

He's going to join Sayaka in moving eastward. ]

[kandata]

[Featuereless indeed. This probably doesn't speak well of the owner of this palace.

Sayaka and McGillis move east. There's a faint breeze the farther they move. Nice and calming in any other circumstamces, here it only serves to remark how desolate everything is.

Oh! Wait. There's something small fluttering in the breeze. It's carried in the breeze, away from McGillis, Soujuurou and Sayaka -- but it's something. Seems to be a piece of paper? As if the palace itself felt such an object was felt, the breeze intensifies, trying to carry that away from the interlopers]

[emptyself]

Hey, look!

[ soujuurou will run after that piece of paper!? maybe it’s a clue? or maybe he just likes running (no he doesn’t). ]

[vogelfrei]

Ah...

[ TIME TO JOG ALONG?? You're not getting away, paper friend. ]

[kandata]

[The breeze makes the paper dance, changing directions, from going forward to upwards, hovering at about ten feet above you all.

It's like it's taunting you all. It's just out of reach even for a tall person like McGillis. One person alone sure wouldn't be able to grasp it]

[emptyself]

What should we do?

[ soujuurou stares at the piece of paper, hands on his hips and wondering if this is really worth it. it has to be, right? ]

Should we climb on your shoulders, McGillis?

[vogelfrei]

That appears to be our only option.

[ Since he's... definitely way heavier and cannot and should not climb anybody else. God, this is starting off stupid already. ]

You think you can manage?

[ He'll bow down a little and hold out his hands as a step to use. ]

[emptyself]

Yeah, no problem.

[ soujuurou steps on mcgillis’ hand, using the man’s shoulder as support. after a couple seconds, his body is perfectly steady and he moves to, yep, slowly stand up on his shoulders.

hope mcgillis is ready to hold a whole total of 61kg of soujuurou. ]

This is pretty difficult, but I think I can manage.

[ can he reach out now??? ]

[kandata]

[He can! Grasp this paper, Soujuurou, and show to the rest!

Take a look, you three. It's...

...it's trash, no doubt. Seems to be a flyer of some sort. The great majority of it is unreadable, stained with smudged ink, with dirt, with...tar? Weird. There's a round logo in a corner, but it's not possible to see what it is. Touching it seems to leave Soujuurou's hands stained with black and white ink.

That said, there are two things that can be seen. One, the word 'AUDITIONS' is the only thing legible here.

The second thing, is a small map. A dot, and an arrow pointing towards the northwest.

When Sayaka, McGillis, and Soujuurou blink, though, they find themselves back with everyone else. Feel free to tell the rest what you encountered!]

[vogelfrei]

[ McGillis is gritting his teeth through this process - his right shoulder is fully healed up now, or as far as it will, but that still leaves it sore and sensitive and incapable of some movements. Soujuurou's teen boy weight is not PLEASANT on it, that's for sure.

But McGillis is also tough and muscular and stubborn, so he stands as a perfectly still ladder for Soujuurou to grab the paper from.

And now... REGROUPING. Well, that was convenient. ]

[destage]

[...Sayaka's expression pales a bit when she sees the black and white ink in particular on Soujuurou's hands, her face looking clammy and pale. The flyer is strange enough and the talk of auditions is weird, but something about that is...]

...Let's regroup with the others.

[This can't be what she's thinking. This can't, this can't--her chest already feels tight.]

[emptyself]

[ sorry mcgillis, because soujuurou sure jumped off of his shoulder like a cat hopping off.

very convenient regrouping session, though. yay. ]

[emptyself]

[ soujuurou has had his rough set of past few days, so when he sees the nekiya as some barren wasteland, he’s barely shaken.

but he is concerned. ]

I’ll go with you guys.

[ safety in numbers and all! he’ll go eastward with them ]

[kandata]

Safety in numbers to the east!