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

[kandata]

[The platform descends, bringing a note back:]

'A dumbwaiter. I bring objects to and from. But waiting is boring, so I will play Q&A if you ever need it. But I cannot answer anything Kirumi Tojo doesn't know.'

[How conversational!]

[strawsandals]

Oi, Aaron...

[ He holds up the notebook and memo he got earlier. ]

Should I keep these or send them?

[imperiosity]

[Well, after feeding that shirt to Fray and friends the dumbwaiter gods, he'll finally turn back to Yoon.]

Guess we oughta ask where they'd be going, first.

[you know, instead of sending shirts down to clothing purgatory. turning to the dumbwaiter:]

Well, how about it?

[kandata]

[Here you go, a dumbwaiter response!]

'To the other side of the room of this cave. My only purpose is to carry objects back and forth if you ever need it.'

[No wonder the dumbwaiter is bored enough to establish conversation, if that's its only purpose]

[imperiosity]

Huh. Wonder if that means we'll need to send something over to that side to get through.

[as he looks over at the others and briefly debates the merit of sending along a vase full of dirt and/or an entire painting, have another question, dear dumbwaiter.]

You send messages, too?

[kandata]

[The dumbwaiter's platform descends a little and then back up, repeatedly and in quick succession.

That seems like a nod, somehow. It can send messages]

[imperiosity]

All right, then let 'em know we got a vase with dirt and a painting on our side. Dunno if any of it would be relevant to them, but might as well.

[is he maybe failing to tell the dumbwaiter that it should include some context? nah. it's fine.]

[kandata]

[The dumbwaiter descends on its own. When it comes back up, a shout with Kainé's voice erupts from the empty dumbwaiter.

Goodness gracious]

[imperiosity]

[okay that gets him to startle and cuts off his train of thought for a moment.]

The hell?! That the exhibitionist chick?

[maybe he even said that loud enough for Kainé to hear because he's standing right in front of the dumbwaiter??]

never mind, you're fishy and not nick. i don't know how i did this.

[moonshaded]

[Anyway.]

[imperiosity]

[Yup, that's Kainé all right!! And that news isn't alarming at all, uh huh.]

Damn, that's pretty messed up. Most we're doing is using the flashlight and [a pause as he looks over to McGillis, doing his dirt experiment^TM] sticking hands in vases.

[moonshaded]

Cute. [He can probably hear either the slight sigh or the roll of her eyes in her tone. It sounds pretty quaint compared to incinerating people's stand-ins.] What's in the vase?

[Despite this being much more convenient than stomping across the whole cavern, Kainé is not the best at playing telephone.]

[imperiosity]

[please hold, he's going to walk over there and snoop in on what McGillis is doing before wandering back.]

Just dirt, it looks like. There's also a little figure of the maid running around it, but it seems to disappear when you remove some of the dirt.

[moonshaded]

If that's a puzzle, it's a bullshit one.

[BUT NOT TO ME, NICK! IT'S JUST FOR THE BIT.]

Maybe put something in it? Like a flower.

[imperiosity]

Don't see any flowers on this side, but...

[That does give him an idea, though??]

Have any of those paper dolls with you? Send a couple up if you do.

[moonshaded]

... Yeah, all right.

[After some deliberation and a bit of fiddling with the machine, since she didn't really watch what Argenti was doing), she will send over 1 Kirumi-styled ("MYSELF") doll, one regular person doll, and one zero doll.]

Get 'em?

[imperiosity]

Yeah, thanks. I'll be right back.

[doot doot doot there he goes to experiment and then fail!!!]

Guess that would've been too easy. Looks like adding shit on top just flattens her instead. Looks like the dirt itself is supposed to represent the maid.

[Which, like, he doesn't want to read too much into it but...]

[moonshaded]

[But.]

So clean it? But that'd get rid of her...

[She doesn't sound confident in that suggestion whatsoever, just puzzled.]