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Kirumi Tojo's Palace | The Ultimate Maid's Failures
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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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]
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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...]
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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!]
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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.]
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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?]
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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.]
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I am certain to those you know and care about you, you are a fine person, just being like you want to be.
[It'd make her kind of jealous, if this was the real her talking! Kirumi accepts the answer.
From the dumbwaiter comes two tubes of glue and a note written on white paper. The handwriting is similar to Kirumi's, but not the same.
'Nobody thinks anything of me. I don't want to be in the background anymore. Any talent is alright as long as everyone can see me. Something entertaining, outgoing...? Could I be given one of those, please...?'
That sure was nothing like her even though the handwriting is close enough]
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You are Yi Sang. What talent do you wish you had?
[You got your question!]
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...I wish I had the talent to resolve conflicts.
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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?]
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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.
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I...do not remember a time when I stayed idle in the face of conflict. Despite that...that feeling of powerlessness...it sounds familiar.
It hurts when you can only watch and know you can't do anything...
[It seems Kirumi sympathizes with that answer! Neat.
From the dumbwaiter comes the sound of the platform ascending. Inside, Yi Sang will find two tubes of glue and a note on white paper, with black letters. It's not Kirumi's handwriting, but it's strangely close.
'I can't do anything on my own. I want to do anything without relying on anybody.'
Short, but right to the point]
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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]
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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.
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...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
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.]
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[Kirumi seems to have liked that response! Self-actualization, hell yeah.
From the dumbwaiter comes the sound of something arriving. It's a note, black letters on white paper. The handwriting isn't Kirumi's, but it's very close to it.
'I hate I have to do all I'm told. It's like all I'm around for is to be...some convenient prop. I'm sick of it.'
There are also two tubes of glue. Nice, strong glue]
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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?
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Don’t exactly see what else we could use this glue on, so it sounds like a plan to me.
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Agreed. Let's try to repair this, whatever it means.
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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.]
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[that’s not really all that high on the hobby list for him but he will persist!!!]
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That vase looks absolutely nothing like what it was before.
You have an ELEGANT VASE. It's so imperfect, though. There are so many cracks, and empty spaces litter its surface. A particularly big one is perfectly shaped like a rounded rectangle, it's uncanny! Doesn't seem like there's more shards lying around, though.
You have a vase. From the painting comes a noise, too, but from what you see, nothing about its contents changed, it still looks as Aaron left it.]
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