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

[emptyself]

McGillis!!!

[ thank goodness he’s still around! a small sense of relief washes over soujuurou.

the boy stops in his tracks, breathing ragged from all the running he had to do. even if it was at the other end of the school, maybe less than a few minutes had passed since his conversation with the weird bear. ]

We shouldn’t have split up! It made Shadows of us! Of Eli, of Arven, of Mafuyu, of Hoshino, and of me!

[vogelfrei]

[ Well... shit. That is indeed important news - and instantly makes McGillis question if the person in front of him is actually Soujuurou or not, with how he's losing his calm. ]

We have to find the other ones. You stick with me, so I can vouch for your identity.

[ Or take you down in case you're not the real deal. ]

[emptyself]

…

[ soujuurou looks genuinely hurt when he realizes that his own integrity is being put into question, but he doesn’t refute it.

with a nod and a sigh, he falls back to mcgillis’ side. ]

I don’t think we’ve gone against most of these. Mafuyu didn’t fight herself, but my Shadow…

[ he looks distraught at the memory of his near-palace. when he speaks, it’s like a confession from a sinner. ]

I hurt a lot of people. We can’t let that happen again.

[vogelfrei]

[ This, then, sounds more like Soujuurou. McGillis remembers how deeply distraught Celeste was by the events with Soujuurou's realm, and finds himself glad the other isn't here right now. ]

This is not you. It's bound to be a cheap imitation instead.

[ The Shadows they fought before were always intrinsically part of their owner, so McGillis is at least optimistic about that part. ]

We'll find him. Where do we start?

[ Time to head out to a different location and conveniently land somewhere nobody else has gone yet-- ]

[kandata]

[I still have yet to post a list in chat, but I can say right now the windows, the door near the music room, the girls' bathroom, the classroom in the basement, the dining hall and the gym are still untouched]

[emptyself]

How about the gym?

[ he’ll pull out the map, and hopefully the direction is still there? ]

[vogelfrei]

As good a place to start as any.

[ To the gym we go! ]

[kandata]

[Gym!

It's quite big. Every step is echoing here. The air is heavy, foreboding -- this place is full of an atmosphere that hints nothing good ever happened here.

There...doesn't seem to be anyone here, at first glance, though. Looks like you're free to check around. Go ahead!]

[emptyself]

[ hmm… soujuurou will be looking back at the door that they went through. is it still open for them to go through? nick i rolled an 8 help me. ]

[kandata]

[Soujuurou notices too late the doors are closing, and then they slam closed. The gym is now a closed place!

But his failure at perception makes him unable to notice the doors are still unlocked; they're merely closed. No danger on this regard. Still, neither McGillis nor Soujuurou will see the doors are unlocked unless they try to exit]

[emptyself]

—!!!

[ well, even with his failed perception, soujuurou doesn’t first think “enemy”, but “wind draft”.

so he’ll uh… try to open again, then. ]

[kandata]

[At the other side, there's Monokuma]

Geez, make less noise with these doors. You're gonna wake someone up.

[And he closes the gym doors.

Full disclosure, he did this just to mess with Soujuurou and McGillis. If he tries to open the doors again, Monokuma won't be there anymore, and the doors will be able to stay open if that's what they want]

[emptyself]

AHH!!

[ he is NOT a fan!!! of being!! scared like this!!

maybe it’s better if he doesn’t open it anymore. he’ll step away from it and see if there’s anything else he can see on the other end of the gym room (16) ]

[kandata]

[At the other side of the gym there's a stage. Soujuurou's perception will allow him to notice a trapdoor behind a podium, even though the trapdoor is very well camouflaged.

Onto non-perception stuff, one of the stage's red curtains seem to be draped over something unidentifiable. All one can tell is that it's enormous!

There's the podium itself, too, and to a side of the stage, you'll find what seems to be a a tape player.

Plenty of stuff for two people!]

[emptyself]

[ soujuurou will try to push the trap door. does it open? ]

[kandata]

[Nope! It's tremendously heavy, turns out. Abnormally so. Soujuurou can't open the trap door]

[emptyself]

[ rude.

if he pulls the curtain, can hr see what it is draped over (13)? ]

[kandata]

[You can! Look at that, Soujuurou, this is...

It's one of these big boys!

And honestly, he getting a good rolls means I can't spook him with it, alas. In addition to that, he'll see the cockpit area is unlocked, and it sure is big enough for a human to enter.

Soujuurou has found a tiny mecha, in other words. It may be bigger than a human being, but also it probably is insignificant compared to the mechas McGillis over there pilots

I edit to wonder why that image is for ants. I can't fix that, but yeah]

[emptyself]

What is that?

[ see, soujuurou would have called it a fridge, but he rolled a 19 so he can recognize that he has no idea what the fuck this is. ]

McGillis, do you know what this is?

[vogelfrei]

[ Well, McGillis is over in a flash and... ]

That's a mobile suit. I didn't think her world had these...

[ Could he get into the cockpit? Or is it tall-man-phobic?? ]

[vogelfrei]

[ McGillis, nosy as he is, will be examining the tape player! ]

[kandata]

[McGillis can take the tape player. Nothing horrible pops up to take it from him.

Oh! There's a tape in here. It's labeled 'opening speech closing' in chickenscratch.

Play it? Ignore it? Take it with you?]

[vogelfrei]

[ Play it! ]

[kandata]

[Augh, it's that bear's voice.

It's not alone, though. There are many distressed teenagers' voices sounding too, and none of them sounded like Kirumi. That said, it's likely she was there when this all happened. This is her palace, based on her mindscape. This must be an exact memory]

[vogelfrei]

Talk about tasteless...

[ The whole killing game situation still feels bizarre to him. He's seen a lot of messed up things in his lifetime, but it's so... frivolous in its violence.

McGillis is going to pocket the tape, just in case. And then he'll check out the podium - but not with any particular amount of Having Eyes (9). ]