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]

[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.]

[kandata]

...I cannot say that freedom is something I can have. You won't truly realize how freeing that is until you lose it.

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]

[imperiosity]

[There’s a small ‘hah’ at the final sentence, like she just stated the most obvious thing in the world.

As he picks up the note and glue, a few more words slip from his mouth, even though he’s fairly certain she’s already gone, if she was ever technically here in the first place. Still, he feels the need to say it, so he will.]

I’m saying that ‘cause I know exactly what it’s like to lose it.

[He doesn’t think their experiences are remotely comparable to each other, not at all. That note alone already shows they’re complete opposites in a number of ways. But on this minute point, he may be able to find some degree of common ground.

In any case, after those parting words, he will head back over to where the others are collecting the shards.]