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

[beautifulknight]

[ Argenti is not the type of person to hesitate when it comes to a decision.

That remains true even now.

So, he'll try to ascend. ]

[kandata]

[Ah, thank you to Avrae for giving a failure roll right away, so I can demonstrate with Argenti.

Argenti will begin to try to ascend. He's in the first leg. He's not too high yet; a fall would hurt but it wouldn't kill him.

As if the bones sensed there's people trying to escape the depths of hell, they move. Some levitate, others start connecting to each other, forming a long chain. A clawed hand, formed with jagged, splintered bones, form at the end of the chain, and, dripping wet, it bolts upwards to cling onto Argenti's back, grabbing at the armor with surprising strength.

The hand tugs from Argenti, trying to rip him off the thread. Other bones begin uniting, already preparing backup. All for the sake of dragging people down!]

[beautifulknight]

[ Damn should have smashed the bones after all, but there are a bunch of them anyway, so maybe it wouldn't have mattered much.

Either way, Argenti seems prepared somehow, due to the previous conversation, so he isn't taken by surprise. He can handle this himself. ]

Phoenix!

[ Right then and there from the fallen ashes appears his persona, and casts Mapsio directed right in the midst of those splintered bones, the strength of it shattering its foundations right before the section of the hand itself is gripping onto his back, so that it crumples, but this is a multispell, so it also strikes out at the backups too (17)

He's going to try to ascend again because he's stubborn, of course. ]

[kandata]

[Bones are, by nature, a resistant material because it'd truly suck for us all if they weren't. The psychic damage dislocates them, without breaking them altogether, but it's enough for Argenti to make progress upwards. A parting shot: femurs launch themselves towards Argenti, brushing against his arms, trying to scare him to let go of the thread.

But he succeeds. Second leg! This one and two more ahead.

You're approximately at the level of a third floor above the water below. The bones seem to be too low below to reach you, and high above, there's a breeze, indicating there's more open space. Is that the sun? The threads seem to connect to the sun itself.

...watch out, though! Looking at the walls of this pit you're trying to get out of, there are marks that seem to indicate the walls can open. Who knows what's in there!]

[beautifulknight]

[ Honestly, fair.

Argenti shrugs off the irritating parting shot with ease indeed, though he is certain that last attempt was out of spite - and huffs at that.

Well, Argenti isn't necessarily excited about what might be awaiting him if he isn't too cautious, ultimately Argenti continues to climb upwards anyways without being deterred (19)

In other words, he is going to do his best to ascend once again. ]

[kandata]

[Ascend again you will! Onto the third leg! This one and one more ahead.

Luckily for Argenti, he seems to have gone unnoticed, compared to others who are getting accosted by cannonballs and spikes. Perhaps it's this bad luck what makes Monokuma strike preemptively.

Six stories above water, Argenti is. The very top of this pit is visible...there are two Exisals there: McGillis', having landed safely at whatever's up there, and another one]

Timber!

[With that shout, Monokuma pushes the Exisal to begin sliding down the thread, to try to bowl Argenti over, and hope to crush him not only with the fall but with the weight of the mecha]

[beautifulknight]

[ Argenti handles rescuing his boyfriend and also climbing up to this leg of the journey admirably well. As it is, it pretty much does seem like incredibly bad luck, especially since there are two mechas awaiting for him.

...Yet, the Knight of Beauty has his training to thank, perhaps, managing to swing on the spider thread completely out of the way (14)

After that, he will attempt to ascend once more. ]

[kandata]

[Woah, failure to ascend. Bad roll!

Below Argenti, he'll hear the loud scream of Fray. It's the scream of a man plummeting! Given their relationship, Argenti probably will look down, won't he?

When he does, he'll see Fray isn't plummeting to his death. Instead, Monokuma is staring at Argenti from a hole down at the second leg]

Made you look.

[And with a wave of his paw, an Agilao goes towards Argenti. Monokuma can use attacks!]

[beautifulknight]

[ Argenti would indeed fall for it, what can I say? Argenti's worrywart tendencies can be used against him in a heartbeat.

Regardless, that sure is an Agilao heading towards him, and he not only avoids it, but Argenti also sends a strong Psio straight back at Monokuma (20) in retaliation!

Eat shit (hopefully), mechanical bear.

He will also try to ascend once more. ]