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]

[Like Kainé, he'll wait a little for the others so he can help kick some ass(bones), but he's not going to sit around forever. So here he is, climbing this thread with a 17 and a stripper pole strapped to his back.]

[kandata]

[Your foresight at having that stripper pole proves helpful for Aaron by a stroke of luck. A rib, aimed for his neck, crosses the air, but it impacts the stripper pole instead. Aaron's neck is safe!

He gets to the second legs. This one and two more ahead!

Three stories above the floor, the wall of the pit opens up, an Exisal is right there. The machine seems poised to grab onto the spider thread Aaron is climbing, ready to give it a vigorous shake.

Good luck, Aaron! May the dice favor you so you get through without that problem!]

[imperiosity]

[this pole is his new best friend

In any case, he does see that Exisal popping out, so he's going to be preemptive about this and summon his Persona to launch a Garula at the machine in hopes of both pushing it away and moving the thread some distance from those mech yaoi hands. This stunt will probably shake things up for himself in the literal sense, he's able to keep his grip (12) apparently!?]

[kandata]

[I can't believe the things you write sometimes. Mech yaoi hands will live in my head for a whiiiiile.

Aaron is clever, honestly! That was a smart use of a Garula spell, highly effective at both pushing himself away from the Exisal and make the mecha hesitate. Pretty amazing!

The third leg is coming ahead! That one and one more to go, Aaron.

A little more than six stories high, Aaron will feel something tugs at the thread he's climbing. If he looks down, he'll be able to see a skull. A skull clamped down onto the thread at some point, and now it's chomping up towards him. Like a bony Pacman, maybe!

Watch out, may the dice roll favor you so you can ascend without pain]

[imperiosity]

[uwu i do it out of love i say, love!!!

He sees the skull and he keeps climbing at his usual pace, right up until it gets within a couple meters of him. And maybe the smart thing to do would be to try and shake it off with another Persona skill or speeding up his ascent, but he decides to do neither of these things.

Instead, he actually lets his grip slacken enough that he's practically falling towards the skull, one foot aimed dead center and ready to smash right into it. I guess this will somehow this will work out for him with an 11????? He does have enough sense to not keep pseudo free-falling for long, so he just barely manages to stop himself by winding his hands back around the thread which will dig into his skin and kind of hurt but like. Totally worth it. Yeah.

He'll keep climbing once he's had a moment.]

[kandata]

[Barely works out. He might get some minor friction aches onto his fingers, but that worked.

The last leg, and Monokuma, seeing Aaron get up, decides it's time to get serious]

You'll get up here...only over this guy's dead body!

[Monokuma vanishes for a moment, and returns with a second Monokuma, pushing him so it falls onto Aaron. It's like having a maddened cat clinging to you! All these claws, trying to slash at Aaron, hurt him, make him fall to his death.

Deal with that if you can, Aaron! It's Monokuma attack!]

[imperiosity]

[Welp!! This isn’t going to work out particularly well for him, because he’s not expecting Monokuma to cling like that. He’s not going anywhere with that 3, busy as he is with getting mauled and summoning his Persona so she can come in from the side and try to skewer the Monokuma with a Lunge, that hopefully will just skim him at the most.]

[kandata]

[Monokuma above is having such a grand time watching Aaron get mauled by another bear. He laughs even more when the Lunge hits Aaron straight on. It does make the bear mauling Aaron fall, but still, it can't be great to experience how it feels to be on the other end of one of the attacks you use!]

That was so worth it. Hey, do it again!

[As if Aaron would just Lunge himself again!]

[imperiosity]

[He growls at the taunt, but he has enough sense to try to Dia himself for all the good that’ll do!!! Shit hurts, although that probably hurt his pride more than anything else tbh.]

Yeah, then how ‘bout you come down and we can give it another whirl?

[he’s definitely asking for another attack here because I just rolled a 2. avrae come back to me baby]

[moodwrecker]

[Aubrey's just going to swing an axe at Monokuma (14) to try to keep him occupied while Aaron climbs.]

[kandata]

H-Hey, stop that!

[Aubrey hits Monokuma. There's a squeaky noise that would be comedic at any other time, and he's thrown aside. He turns his head enough to glare at Aubrey, before he vanishes into nothing. He's the god of this mindscape, he can cheat!

But at least this means Aaron is safe. He should have no trouble getting to the edge!]

[imperiosity]

[He sees that flash of pink right as he's about to brace himself for another attack, but when Monokuma vanishes, Aaron's quick to close the distance to the edge of the pit. He pulls himself up with a little difficulty because of the remaining scratches all over his back, but once he's up there, he seems like... mostly okay.

Looking over to Aubrey:]

Pretty nice assist.

[moodwrecker]

[She hates this fuckin bear okay!!]

He's the one who swung at me first.

[That means it's valid to steal the axe and also return the favor. Probably.]

[imperiosity]

[Oh no, he thinks she's totally valid. He... well, he probably wouldn't bother with the axe, but he would definitely kick that bear's ass too (pending avrae's approval).]

Hah. Not like he doesn't deserve it after everything else, too.

Anyway, I owe you one, Aubrey.

[moodwrecker]

[Shrugging a little.]

...It's no big deal.