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?

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[vogelfrei]

[ Being a dramatic bitch, McGillis is drawn to the pedestal. What do we have here? ]

[kandata]

[Going straight to the heart of things, eh? Gaze upon what's on the pedestal, McGillis:



It's a GENERIC VASE. Looks so generic you could even think it's 3D printed.

This vase is sitting nice and comfy on the center of the pedestal. The pedestal itself looks rather nice, but still, this vase does not belong on such a pedestal. It's clashing so much...]

[vogelfrei]

[ HUH.

McGillis is going to park the Exisal and briefly unshrimp himself so he can get out and examine this vase without breaking it. If he lifts it and checks the inside, is there anything in there? ]

[kandata]

[Inside McGillis will find what seems to be a whole bunch of dirt. Doesn't even look like good dirt, it's all in clumps. Nothing nice would ever grow on this.

While he's examining the vase, from the corner of his eye McGillis would notice something moving across the surface of the outside of the vase]

[vogelfrei]

[ Low quality dirt! What a cheap palace, get better dirt--!!

Anyway, the movement is infinitely more relevant than the dirt, so he's going to set the vase back down and try to find what has been moving. An insect of some kind, maybe? ]

[kandata]

[I'm going to tell Kirumi you called her an insect.

Because it's a silhouette that definitely looks like Kirumi. It's moving, restless. Pacing all over the surface of the vase. Like all the other sightings of it so far in the palace, it's hard to distinguish it -- McGillis probably saw it because the angle at that moment was favorable]

[vogelfrei]

[ What the fuck. ]

That's...

[ So for clarity, she basically looks like a tiny shadow cast on the outside of the wall, scuttling all over it? ]

[kandata]

[....hmmmm...let's say it's not tiny. Let's say it's a silhouette from the waist up. That's not tiny at all. This size will help make her recognizable as Kirumi's shape, yup.

Other than that, yes, that's right! This Kirumi silhouette is pacing around, going back and forth over the circumference of the vase]

[vogelfrei]

[ Okay, next question then. If McGillis sticks his hand in the vase and takes out just one tiny piece of Low Quality Dirt, does the silhouette react? ]

[kandata]

[McGillis now has some terrible dirt. It crumbles in his hand, looking all ashy and kind of depressing.

The silhouette, well...it sure looks like a little bit of it disappeared. A smidgen, from the top of the head, but still!

She didn't react in any way, though. Doesn't seem to have noticed a thing. Doesn't seem that silhouette is sentient, although its existence is directly related to the dirt]

[imperiosity]

[wandering over here after talking with Kainé i guess?! does the silhouette return if the terrable dirt is placed back in the vase, or is that bit gone forever...]

[kandata]

[I like the mental image of Aaron just having to hold McGillis' hand over the vase so the dirt can be returned there.

When that happens, the silhouette is complete again. This Kirumi is whole again! Frantic and pacing all over the circumference of the vase, but whole again!]

[imperiosity]

[Nick please!!

He's not sure if this is another flashlight situation or not, but either way -- is there enough space in the vase to shift the dirt so he can see the bottom of the vase or are they going to have to empty it if he wants to hunt for treasure...]

[kandata]

[If you want to see the bottom, you're going to have to empty it! It's too much dirt for seeing inside without emptying it completely.

Aaron can see it looks like such dry dirt, though. Like it's never even gotten any water before. No wonder it's all in clumps and ashy, it's depressing]

[imperiosity]

[spits in it

Okay no!! Anyways, I see that tag below so let's just say he left it to Soujuurou and wandered back to shout things at Kainé!!]

[kandata]

[fishy i am bad ending this palace if you spit in the vase of dirt i swear to monokuma]

[imperiosity]

[wow when you make promises like that how can i say no!! too bad aaron has enough courtesy to not go spitting into vases of dirt randomly

but i, fishy, will spit in the vase on his behalf]

[emptyself]

[ well what if soujuurou just.... dumps the dirt out on the floor? and i didn't accidentally delete that tag? ]

[kandata]

[Goodness gracious, the dirt vandalism deja vu!

The dirt spills on the cave floor, that probably already has dirt of its own all over its rocky surface. Not only the silhouette on the vase, but also that on the painting disappear completely!

Oh! There's something written at the bottom of the inside of the vase, though. That would have been impossible to see otherwise]

[emptyself]

[ oh boy a secret message!

what does it say? ]

[kandata]

[This vase truly is a dour thing, and the message inside isn't any cheerier. It's with a handwriting that looks...not like Kirumi's exactly, but there's a sense of familiarity to it nonetheless.

'I want to be more. Anything is better than completely nothing.']

[emptyself]

[ oh. that's definitely not a cheerful message.

soujuurou hums, seeing if there's anything else on the vase. ]

[kandata]

[Looks like not! There seems to be nothing else inside the vase. Now you all here on the left side have an empty vase, and a bunch of dirt on the floor of the cave.

Where does one go from here, really?]

[emptyself]

[ well soujuurou will set the vase on the floor and...

start dumping the dirt back in the vase. he knows he won't get everything, but he'll do as much as he can. he's a very patient young man. ]

[kandata]

[One day I'll have a tupperware of dirt and I'll go to a cave, throw a bunch of dirt on it, and then scoop it back to see how much cave dirt is dragged along. I have to assume the answer is 'a fair bit', and if I ever do this scenario and turns out I'm wrong, I'll feel so silly.

Because yeah, Soujuurou is able to get vase contents back into the generic vase. He may not get all of it, leading to Kirumi's silhouette looking a tad patchy. The painting over there, it has Kirumi's pixel self again too, but it has dirt stains all over it, from the cave's dirt. There even is a pebble stuck to the side of the head, it having gotten into the vase while Soujuurou got it all back in it.

This sure is a fine how do you do, eh? But doesn't seem like there are lasting consequences! You're back to square one: a generic vase with sad dirt...but now you have a bit of extra data, about what the inside of the vase had written inside it]