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

Phase 0.5 Regroup?

[kandata]

[destage]

[So. Sayaka already looks positively clammy and pale by the time everyone regroups, and it looks like it's taking a herculean feat to keep herself together.

But thankfully, she is going to manage it, breathing gently and centering herself. She's overthinking, she has to be.]

Shizuki-kun, McGillis-san, and I managed to find a flyer by going east; while much of it seems to be illegible, it was talking about auditions. And there was a map, too--a map pointing to the northwest.

And, um...Shizuki-kun's hands were stained with...black and white ink when he touched the paper, for some reason.

[There's a pause. A quick glance toward Fray for a brief moment, before she speaks up again.]

...

Nobody...happened to encounter a bear or anything like that, right...?

[bloodweapon]

[Fray catches that glance, though he says nothing. He certainly can see why Sayaka's worried...]

[moonshaded]

A stuffed one? Yeah, I did.

[She holds up her hands; they are also stained with black and white.]

Felt soft...and a little warm. Fell into the floor.

[finalmix]

[ adding himself to the got their hands stained with black and white group ]

I tried to clean off the grave since it wasn't maintained.

[destage]

[It's instantaneous, the way Sayaka freezes up at that. Oh. Oh this is bad--she connecting dots together in ways that she really doesn't like, and it's clear on her face that there's a bolt of recognition.]

...I wonder what it looked like. You wouldn't have happened to have gotten a good look at it, would you?

I...only ask, because of something I talked about with someone on the network. Something we both recognized.

[emptyself]

A bear? I don’t think anything could live in here— it’s all blank.

[destage]

...If it's the one I'm thinking of, it isn't an actual, living bear. It's more like a stuffed, robotic plush.

[vogelfrei]

[ Well, all of what everyone said is foreboding and absolutely unpleasant.

But there really is only one path forward for them, isn't there...? ]

We should follow the map. There is nothing to be gained by waiting around here.

[idealitas]

I agree.

[beautifulknight]

...Then, let's go ahead in following the map.

Onwards in the northwest direction.

[ No sense in dallying here indeed! ]

[chimken]

[ Falin is hurrying back to where she sees the others. ]

I saw something...that looked like Kirumi. It was like a wisp or ghost...it had some of her features but they were so vague. The...the air around her was full of regret...

[vogelfrei]

So this is hers...

[ After her weird network message, it felt too be expected that she'd spawn a palace of her own, but... Well, he'd always wanted to get to know her better. This is his chance? It feels bad. ]

[bloodweapon]

I found a TV; when I turned it on, there was some sort of round logo within the static. There was also a padlock on the back of the TV - when I broke it, black and white ink came out, and I heard Kirumi's voice say "I want to be part of that world".

[So you know. Perfectly normal things!]

[moonshaded]

The world...in the TV?

[If I think too hard about the history of technology in Nier universe I spontaneously start smelling toast burning, but she understands enough.]

None of that shit is real, though.

[prozaic]

We found a lantern. [He raises his tail, the lantern hanging from the end of it so he can handle his staff with one hand and keep the other free.]

But more than that, we saw a single grave in an expanse of nothing.

[beautifulknight]

[ Argenti's eyes lay upon the lantern, in thought. ]

...A single grave?

[ Hmm, foreboding...but still too early to make heads or tails of it. ]

[moonshaded]

[Tch... She was the only one there, so she's the only one who can offer this information, she guesses.]

Out west, there was a red marker on the ground. Past that, some kind of toy bear was sinking into the ground.

[She hesitates, then shakes her head.] Nah. Passing through it.

I tried to grab it, but it just made me feel like I was somewhere else for a second. Then I popped back here with this shit all over my hands. [They are stained black and white.]

[strawsandals]

Black and white? Did the bear have those colors or did it appear out of nowhere...?

[moodwrecker]

[People were talking about bears which was alarming but-]

Oh. It's just a toy?

the reward(?) for passing the evaluations

[idealitas]

[ woe, dongrang dangnabbit roomba tech be upon ye. It apparently looks like a flashlight.

Yi Sang is not turning it on because he has at least one of the braincells or something. ]

Going by the expensive and intricate components, I have reason to believe this does not operate like a normal flashlight or have such a purpose.

[vogelfrei]

Given the structure of palaces so far, I assume we're going to need to use it sooner or later.

[ For what?? Who knows. ]

Does anybody have an idea what it might do?

[emptyself]

Then maybe we should save it for a later time. We can see just fine right now, can't we?

[ he's still eyeing it pretty suspiciously and would rather not use it unless they have to. ]

[imperiosity]

Normally, I'd say it's some kinda studio light considering the whole camera set up, but it's not like logic always works in these places anyway. For all we know, it could drop us into a pit when we try to turn it on.

Might as well just hold on to it for now unless we really don't have any other leads.

[kandata]

Yeah yeah, I agree. Keep it.

[........]