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 --- Continuation

[kandata]

[Time to move northwest!

The floor has always been tiled, but the farther you go northwest, the more you find out the floor beneath you is...echoy. Even though the expanse around you is endless and empty, there's an echo as if you were indoors.

In the distance, though...something is there. Take a look. Once everyone comes closer, they'll find...

Twelve cameras on tripods. The tripods are very tall, the lenses of the cameras are pointing at different spots of the floor. Each tripod is separate from each other, ensuring none of them will interfere with each other.

Well then!

What will you do?]

[emptyself]

[ is there any indication that the cameras are turned on? ]

[kandata]

[Indeed there is! Every single of these cameras have a red light to the side, signaling it's recording. They're all live!]

[emptyself]

[ he knows about security cameras! ]

We’re being watched.

[ and he doesn’t like this! ]

[beautifulknight]

[ ... ? ]

What is this? Why so many cameras?

[ Hello???

Should they destroy them, he wonders... ]

[vogelfrei]

Twelve cameras, and twelve of us.

[ Whatever that means, it feels like it can't be a coincidence. ]

[beautifulknight]

A camera for each one of us...

[ Honestly, it's unsettling, really. ]

I wonder if we should simply take care of them...though I am uncertain if doing that may cause more trouble instead.

[moonshaded]

... It's the world she wanted to be a part of, right?

[She doesn't understand it at all, but there's that weird flash of empathy. Well, maybe not weird to people who have seen it before, but nothing like the tough exterior that claims to want to get in, do the fighting for the people who are better at hugging it out, then leave.]

She didn't wanna just watch whatever it was.

[moonshaded]

[Kainé pulls up short like a dog balking the lead.]

... Yeah, no thanks.

[She would really love it if there were a way to proceed in this without getting on camera and may need some coaxing.]

[strawsandals]

[ Okay, okay, fine, he'll step in front of a camera for evaluation. Well, let's see what happens. ]

[kandata]

[Yooooooon. Let's see what we get here!]

Name?

[Customary question, really! The next one is a normal one, too]

----change one thing---urself----uld it be?

[Sounded pretty choppy, but the question is there. What would you change about yourself?]

[idealitas]

[ You know what, he's gone through screenings and stuff like this before for positions within the Nests (hate that). So Yi Sang can stand in front of an unoccupied camera rather calmly. ]

[kandata]

[So calm! Okay, let's see that calm hold up!]

Name?

[Seems like an easy one, amidst the static and the artifacts:]

------one goal-----?

[What goal do you want to achieve, Yi Sang?]

[emptyself]

[ well soujuurou isn’t really happy doing this but he’ll meekly stand in front of a camera. ]

[kandata]

[When the camera focuses on Soujuurou, the question takes longer to come at him compared to the rest. Finally...]

Name?

[Here comes your question!]

----something you would like to have right now.

[My! That's a very direct request!]

[moonshaded]

[After some deliberation about smashing the cameras, she does finally get in front of one - maybe a little too close.]

It's Kainé. Open up already, or I'll bust you into scrap metal.

[kandata]

[.........

The camera's lens snaps shut, the light turns off. Woah! It's not cooperating with Kainé. Rude camera! There's no doubt Kainé is still being monitored, but it seems the camera is trying to avoid her.

Too bad for the camera, it's an inanimate object]

[moodwrecker]

[Kaine is so real, so Aubreh's just going to march up and mimic her honestly.]

My name is Aubrey. Hurry up and do your thing before I put this bat to use.

[kandata]

[So violent!

....

The camera lens closes up too, the spotlight is gone, the recording light is gone, and like with Kainé, a paper comes fluttering down.

The review, though...]

'Candidate NAME UNKNOWN. Extremely uncooperative, in a way that could be appealing. Right attitude for-- [Unintelligible] Cons: Violent streak.

Rating: 10/10. Approved.

[A teenager like Aubrey, with an interesting backstory, being welcome in Danganronpa, where she probably would have many fans and many would root for her? Yeah, it was a given]

[bloodweapon]

[Since Fray has been here the whole time (don't worry about it), he may as well see what his score would be. After all, he's morbidly curious.

So he steps in front of one of the cameras, waiting on the response.]

[kandata]

[Hello, Fray! Oh, the camera focuses on him, ready to evaluate him. The lens is right onto him, extending a little]

Name.

[Now, what question to ask...despite the static, enough of it can be heard for Fray to know what's being asked;]

----something you want to protect-----ost of your own life?

[Is there anything you'd die to protect, Fray?]

[destage]

[Ohhhh, Sayaka does not like this. Her composure is already cracking to an extent that is not good. One of her hands goes into her hair, and she sees the cameras around and it feels like she's on the spot. It's not the first time, but she had certainly hoped that it'd be the last after...

...

Sayaka forces her own nervous ticks down. Plasters a smile that the people here will definitely realize is a little too practiced, a little too TV ready. She's done interviews. She's done TV commercials.

It's all the same. Keep calm, smile, and be polite. She bows politely to them.]

My name is Sayaka Maizono; a pleasure. If you do not mind my asking...

What is it that you intend for us?

[This place has at least heavily leaned into some suspicions she has about who this could be, and connected some dots; at least, Sayaka is hoping she's right. This is...very different than she expected, but she may as well used some long forgotten skills]

[kandata]

[.............

There's no questions. There's no response. Instead, the feedback appears, the paper falling in front of her]

'Candidate: "SAYAKA MAIZONO". Copycat.

Rating: N/A'

[I wholeheartedly apologize to Sayaka for the immense rudeness I have inflicted on her]

[imperiosity]

[Wow, this place is depressing?? It's a lot different from the other palaces he's seen so far, which were usually fairly elaborate.

Anyways, he'll inspect one of the cameras because he was always here shh.]

[kandata]

[Hello, newcomer! Aaron has a camera focused onto him, and it's ready to give a thorough evaluation of him!

Or at the very least one (1) question]

Name.

[Now, let's see...]

----makes you angry. What makes you hit your boiling point?

[Embrace anger, Aaron! Also answer that question!]