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

[imperiosity]

Hey, lemme try something.

[Does anything else happen if he places the paper dolls Kainé gave him in the vase? Maybe it's the power of friendship or something okay!!! and the Kirumi doll is idk extra self-esteem]

[kandata]

[Hmmmmmm...alright! An unusual situation, but let's see what happens!

The dolls barely fit inside the vase, since there's all the dirt inside, but they're paper dolls. Shoving them in should be easy enough, especially if you're not all that worried about them keeping their cone shape.

The silhouette of Kirumi that had been walking all over the surface of the vase is now squished against the ground, like someone placed a lot of pillows on her. Can't even move.

The painting has gained a weird collage-like appearance, with a background of crumpled paper. In the painting there's a big zero all over the pixel Kirumi, and the flashlight that had been pointed at it is now held by Kirumi the maid, almost photo realistic. The normal person doll is just smashed over the entire thing in a way that's so distracting to look at.

I wish I could illustrate things nicely on the spot to show how kind of silly this all looks]

[imperiosity]

[Damn, friendship failed. He'll just toss the zero doll and the regular person doll out, then. The Kirumi one... honestly the photorealistic one clashes but doesn't seem that out of place actually, so maybe he'll leave it.]

Don't tell me we need to use the flashlight again...

[idealitas]

You can have it if you need.

[ Hands Aaron the flashlight? Go ham, buddy. ]

[imperiosity]

[You're a bro, Yi Sang!!]

Thanks.

[Anyways, he's going to try shining the flashlight on that Kirumi silhouette on the vase, then?! If nothing happens, he'll also remove the Kirumi doll from the mix before trying the flashlight without it.]

[kandata]

[Something happens without you having to remove the doll from the vase.

And what happens is that the GENERIC VASE freaking explodes.

Really, literally, it exploded. Aaron had it, shone the light onto it, and the vase cracked and its shards flew!

Thankfully, the shards seem to still be in the general area, and they look pretty big. They already look different, though. The color is different, and a few of them seem to have writing on them. Three of them do, in fact.

It's recommended different people pick up those three shards]

[imperiosity]

[aidios what the fuck]

Shit!

[Well, he probably has a few nice cuts all over from a couple shards striking him, since he wasn't exactly holding it at a distance. Because why the fuck would anyone expect the vase to goddamn explode smh!!

Anyways, he'll go to retrieve one of the shards, but also uh. What happened to the dirt...]

[kandata]

[The dirt seems to be completely gone. When the vase exploded, the dirt just, poof, disappeared. Weird!

Grab one of the shards, Aaron. It has something inscribed inside, and as if its importance needs to be remarked, something using Monokuma's voice reads what's inscribed there, with neutral enunciation:]

You are Aaron Wei. How do you want others to see you?

[Kind of introspective!]

[imperiosity]

[rip Kirumi... we knew ye (dirt) well

Monokuma's voice instantly raises his hackles for a moment, although once he registers the tone of the question, he settles down easily enough. There's a slight snort before he starts speaking, though.]

Doesn't really matter, does it? People are gonna have their opinions no matter what, so I'm not gonna bend over backwards to change myself for others.

[Maybe that's kind of skirting the question, but it's his first instinct to answer this way.]

[kandata]

[It may be skirting the question, but it's an answer! Kirumi's voice afterwards seems a little bit firm, but it's more because that's how she is than because she's offended by Aaron's answer]

That is true. It is impossible to change the opinions of people who do not want to listen or to think different about yourself. But is there not even a single person out there who you want to perceive you in a specific way?

[...truthfully, perhaps this question to Aaron is because to someone like Kirumi, somebody who can be like that is puzzling. Kirumi, by virtue of her job and how perfectionist she must be, has to care a lot about what others think about her. Someone like Aaron has a privilege she can't afford to have, in her opinion.

Will Aaron answer honestly?]

[imperiosity]

[If nothing else, Kirumi's demeanor does get him to take this more seriously than he might normally if this had simply come up in a regular conversation. He's not always great at being honest about his own feelings, but he will be this time, if only because it feels like she's seeking some sort of answer for herself, too.]

Well, it's not like I wanna look lame in front of everyone. I've got my bros and a whole neighborhood that's practically family to me, too, so of course I'd rather stay in their good graces.

[Liking people and wanting to be liked back -- it's not like he doesn't have those sorts of sentiments somewhere inside him, even if he'd be hard-pressed to admit it out loud. Nevertheless, there's a line that he feels the need to draw here.]

So if you're asking if the thought might cross my mind occasionally, then sure, I'll cop to that. But that's not the same as acting on it, either. I'll do something because I want to, and not because I'm chasing after someone else's approval.

[There's a sharpness in his gaze when he stresses that 'I', almost like he's daring her to deny any part of that statement.]

[idealitas]

[ Yi Sang will pick one of the Generic(tm) vase shards up! ]

[kandata]

[Go ahead, Yi Sang! Grab it! It's got something written on it, and something using Monokuma's voice helpfully reads it aloud:]

You are Yi Sang. What talent do you wish you had?

[You got your question!]

[idealitas]

[ Well, damn. He thinks for a bit, then answers the disembodies Monokuma voice. ]

...I wish I had the talent to resolve conflicts.

[kandata]

[Ah, an answer! From everywhere, Kirumi is the one to respond to Yi Sang:]

That is a talent most people lack but would not wish to have. Why would you wish for something so diplomatic?

[Seems to her there'd be a reason behind such an answer! Will you answer honestly, Yi Sang?]

[idealitas]

[ For Kirumi... or at least her voice, yes. ]

I have witnessed enough conflicts where I could only let the fear and pain sweep over me, in hopes that the cracks would mend on their own or could be ignored.

[prozaic]

[Snagging a shard! He has gloves on, it's fine.]

[kandata]

[Shalem gains a piece, without receiving a grievous cut! As with the other two, there's something engraved here, for Shalem to answer. Monokuma's voice reads it, curiously neutral:]

You are Shalem. What do you loathe the most about yourself?

[All questions in these shards seem to be about accusing the reader of being discontent with themselves, one way or another, but Shalem's is very straightforward on that regard]

[prozaic]

[Oh! Refreshing-- and clear, unlike the previous attempt at questioning via cameras. Of course, as this is not a person, he can't really discern who or what the purpose is, so he can't really manipulate this towards a specific outcome.]

That I was a lamentable coward. I made many terrible, short-sighted decisions because of my fear, and all those decisions impact the way I live my life now.

[kandata]

[Oh, that's such a poignant answer! And Kirumi's voice seems tinged with sympathy for it, even though it's just her disembodied voice]

...in my opinion, you recognizing such flaws means you already are not a coward anymore. What made you want to change with such fervor?

[Will you answer honestly, Shalem?]

cw: death (but not suicide) ideation, violent thoughts

[prozaic]

Want? No, no. [He brushes his hair out of his face.] I did not want to change, nor did I want to examine myself further. I simply believed I could be content to live my life in that office, only occasionally going out to the field for an outreach or a mission, and then passing away quietly, my body taken care of by the company as per regulations. I controlled myself so rigidly, avoiding everything that caught my interest, worrying every day and every night about the possibilities.

Was I truly content? No. Every time I went on a mission, I always felt the adrenaline and missed that feeling, because that truly felt like being alive, and not the quiet, idle life I'd been living. [Then, sharply, angry at himself:] But one would not have pried such an answer out of me, no matter what they did.

What did I fear? Myself. What I could do, what I truly enjoyed, what would truly make me happy. At the time, I just didn't want to be that sort of person, the sort that could look a yawning abyss in its face and find the art in it, the beauty in the macabre. I felt that I was... little more than uncontrollable beast, and not myself, in those moments that I did chance a look.

Then Atem gave me a penalty game, my greatest fear in front of me. I was forced to reconcile with myself-- in violent fashion, even if no blood had been shed. But now, I'm truly content. I am myself. I am no beast.

I am no longer my worst fear.

[Everything here is honest.]

[prozaic]

[Hmm, glue and a lot of shards of the vase-- surely they're meant to put it back together. It's odd they have to break it first though...

Still he looks at the others, still clutching his shard, the note, and the tubes of glue, and goes right back to work like he hadn't just bared his soul to literal air.]

Shall I assume we're meant to put the vase back together, or does anyone have any other ideas?

[imperiosity]

[Welp, here he is with his tubes of glue and shard too.]

Don’t exactly see what else we could use this glue on, so it sounds like a plan to me.

[idealitas]

[ Also with tubes of glue and his shard. ]

Agreed. Let's try to repair this, whatever it means.

[prozaic]

[Shalem goes off to gather the other shards first, before setting everything down. Then he tugs off his gloves so the leather won't be damaged by the glue he's handling.]

Get a piece and let us begin then. [Like an arts-and-crafts session for kids, but they're all... adult men...

But at least he find a piece that fits with his quickly.]