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

[moonshaded]

[If she'd known there would be food here, she wouldn't have ruined her appetite with floor sandwich...

Luckily, Kainé is actually a rather voracious eater. If they stop for some of the meal, she'll have some, especially given the note from Kirumi. But...the atmosphere here is really enough to dim her appetite. The cries seem to bother her; she can't quite shake their impact off, and they interrupt her eating every now and then.]

Looks like we're splitting up again. [Who's coming to the right with her?]

[destage]

[Sayaka will gladly tag along with Kainé; she too has eaten the meal provided (you do not waste food in this house!!), but this places feels...

...Well, it feels like how her head felt for a while, so Sayaka's eyes are softened in sympathy.]

Let's be careful; we don't know what could get thrown at us next.

[What do these bowls hold, I wonder...]

[moonshaded]

[Mm. Yeah, it's really impossible to anticipate. Everything so far has been so wild and confusing, a mix of desolate and insane. It feels a little familiar to her.]

That smug jackass is probably gonna take another swing at us.

[It's probably not the best mindset; she already just kind of sees Monokuma as a sentient thing and not part of the fabric of the palace itself. Anger directed at something that can't sponge it. Blame, too.]

If people care about her like they do the others, they won't turn so easily.

[moodwrecker]

[Aubrey isn't eating, but she'll follow Kainé.]

[moonshaded]

Not hungry?

[The floor sandwich made her feel physically great... so this is her way, kind of obliquely, of asking how she's holding up.]

[moodwrecker]

I'll eat after we're done with whatever horror movie stuff that bear decides to put us through.

[Verdict: toughing it out, apparently.]