WEEK 1

[whimsicalism]

Well! That was some tea party, huh? You've finally seen the faces (or perhaps the singular is more proper here?) of your captors. A pair of creepy twins seem to fit the overall theme of the Castle at least. Why not have Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum, after all?

Regardless, it doesn't seem that they're changing their minds any time soon. The first floor of the Castle is still open up to you. The Audience Hall is still locked most of the time so perhaps you can meet the Alices there if you need to. There are plenty of things to occupy your time before the inevitable slow erosion of your memories. If this is a game, who will make the first move? You or the twins?

Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday

((OOC: Welcome to peace week! There will be no case this week so just have fun and explore. If you want to investigate please put Investigation in your top level. Don't forget to put threads in for regains or go to the Audience Hall to meet the Alices.

Also, if you want to keep up to date on things we now have a discord server!))

Comments

[immaculacies]

[ Manaka is an early riser. First thing in the morning, she appears in the dining hall for breakfast, and after that, she moves to the library with a cup of tea. With the way she settles in at a table and immediately sticks her nose in a book, she might look like she doesn't want to be disturbed at all, except...

Anything you want to know
about the Holy Grail War
♥
Next to her is a piece of paper folded to stand upright, and her girly handwriting loops across it in glitter pen. Of course the others will want to know, after the way the Queen pointed her out; she may as well get it out of the way.

Otherwise, she's just going to spend the day reading. The book, naturally, is about King Arthur. ]

library

[nothingposh]

[Does he want to know about this Holy Grail War? Yes. But making nice is the way to get people to tell you more than they want to, so he tilts his head to read the title of her book. Oh! He knows this one.]

Marius told me about him. [King Arthur, that is.] He was almost a good king.

[Kings in general? Bad. But Arthur was pretty alright.]

[immaculacies]

He was a great king. [ Her answer is barely louder than a murmur, and as she looks down at the book in her hand, her expression can only be described wistful. ] But... He didn't think he was. All he could see were his mistakes, and none of his virtues. I wish...

[ ... ]

Ah! [ She snaps the book shut. ] I didn't notice you. You're, um... Gavroche, right?

[nothingposh]

That's my name, yeah. [Wait.] Are you saying Arthur was a real guy?

[immaculacies]

Mm-hm! Of course. He was... the Heroic Spirit I summoned, in the Holy Grail War.

[nothingposh]

[Gavroche hangs out with a bunch of college kids who are all realists. The idea that Arthur was a real person is literally something they've probably said is nonsense. Gavroche doesn't say any of that, because he's aware enough to realize it probably wouldn't go great.]

So it's like a ghost then? [On account of Arthur's dead.] Everyone's ghosts are fighting in a ghost war?

[immaculacies]

[ Of course, most people in the current world think that way. Manaka just knows better! ]

Mm, that's not that far off. But rather than ghosts, I'd say... Are you familiar with the idea of a magician's familiar?

[seventhlittlemonster]

[Big boy sticks his head into business he doesn't know about. Because he trusts one of his new adoptive big sisters to tell him about new things!]

What is this "Holy Grail War"? Isn't War a card game? Is that what this is? [the poor kid is so. sheltered and has never heard "war" used in any other context.]

[immaculacies]

Ah, you shouldn't listen to the Queen, Seven. No matter what she says, the Holy Grail War isn't a game. [ Manaka lifts a hand, wagging an admonishing finger in his direction. ] It's a life-and-death battle.

[seventhlittlemonster]

...I beg your pardon? [Hm. Terrifying! he wants to hear more!]

[immaculacies]

It's exactly what I said. Seven magi come together to summon seven Heroic Spirits, and then they fight to the death for the right to have a wish granted. [ She says as much very bluntly, not seeing any reason to sugarcoat the matter. ] At least, that's the form my world's Holy Grail War took.

[seventhlittlemonster]

...Seven, huh? That seems to be a very common number, uh... What's the word I'm looking for... Moe-teeth? [He tried not to focus on the people actually killing each other because of how that also tied in with the game.]

Alice was involved with it? She never told me it was a game herself, in fact she never told me anything at all. Do you know anything else?

[immaculacies]

Mm, maybe. In this case, it's because there are seven Servant classes, and... [ Suddenly, she giggles. ] Ah, well, that might just be coincidence. Or maybe fate?

[ Manaka???

But the sudden buoyancy of her mood fades again a second later. ]

Hm, well, I was a Master in my world's first Holy Grail War. Alice wasn't among the enemy Masters I faced, so either she's from another War in the future, or she comes from a parallel world instead. Actually, it gives me a lot of ideas about how the situation came to be like this, but that's all I can say for certain, other than what the Queen and her cat blabbed themselves.

library wars

[soverainty]

[Niko still doesn't spend a ton of time in the library, to tell you the truth -- whatever else she is, she sure is a child of the Digital Age and television babysitters, so even just having a screen and a VCR nearby is enough to have her gravitating towards the Media Room if not just her own room most of the time.

But of course, it's not as though she can ignore the rest of the castle and its inhabitants. This is no time for being antisocial, and she's already found some relatively useful information in the shelves. Accordingly, today she's shuffled over some books of poetry, a few about different types of games and... one or two about electronics...

She pauses when she sees Manaka with her nose in a book but her business all up on a sign, though.]

Oh. Sajyou-san... Are you really okay with, um, those sorts of questions? It sounds like you and the Alices have a pretty complicated history, and I don't want to pry too much.

Do you think it'll help us?

[immaculacies]

Mm, I don't have a history with the Queen or her cat at all. The Holy Grail War is just a common point shared between the parallel worlds we come from... Ah, probably, at least. [ She supposes, technically, she doesn't know that the two of them come for a world separate from her own—just that they aren't participants within her own Holy Grail War. ]

I don't know if it will help us resolve the situation, but I think it's important to knowing how things wound up like this in the first place.

[undershadow]

[ Lena is, as a rule, not a library person, and not being able to reach the higher shelves has not helped with this! Presumably there are ladders, but still. Nerds.

And yet... here she is, not really looking at the books, at all. ]

They really thought they were calling you out, huh?

[immaculacies]

[ takes a sip of her tea ]

They're just little girls, so I can't hold it against them. But it means people are going to want to know what I know, right? There's no point in waiting until I'm asked.

[undershadow]

... Fair, I guess.

[ Manaka can live that life if she wants! It's very admirable!!]

So, do you think it has anything to do with what's going on here?

[immaculacies]

I don't think it's possible that it doesn't. The point of the Holy Grail War is that the victor gets to have a wish granted. Um, the Holy Grail itself isn't something you can really trust, at least not in my world, but... It's still a powerful source of magical energy.

You can already guess where this is going, right?

[undershadow]

Yeah, I got a hunch.

[ And boy oh boy, does it suck! ]

Are there even factions in this? It kinda sounds like every man for himself.

[octopups]

[Oh hey it's those eight weird dogs.]

[The weird dogs have been wandering around the library looking excitedly at all the books for several minutes before one of them notices the stand-up note, but once it does the rest of them all turn and look at Manaka immediately.]

[He then looks mostly away and several of him mill about and fidget in a way that any sentient being on any planet could read as "socially awkward dork trying to figure out how to start a conversation."]

Uh... um.... [One of him cranes its longboye neck to look at your book] Er... w-who's King Arthur?

[immaculacies]

[ Manaka notices movement from the corner of her eye and looks up. Then she blinks and tilts her head. She has seen the portraits in the hall, and read the accompanying information, of course—but still, that's different than seeing such a weird little thing for herself.

Finally, though, the moment is broken by the question, and she lets out a little squeak. ]

Eh—? [ By reflex, she snaps the book in her hands closed, as if she had been reading something really personal. ] Oh, um... You really don't know who King Arthur is, huh? He's really famous in my world, but... Hm...

[ Well, just look at him. How does he even work...? ]

[octopups]

[Amdi pulls that one nose back in surprise from the snapped-closed book and sounds a bit embarrassed.]

Oh! Um, no, I don't think so, I mean, I haven't read a lot from Ravna's archives yet, so maybe it's a human thing that I just don't know about, but, um...

[immaculacies]

...Mm-hm, yeah, it's a human thing...

[ Manaka's brow furrows, like she's thinking very hard... But she doesn't say it. ]

Ah, but, where to start... Um, it's kind of hard to know where to begin with something like this. But, a really long time ago, Arthur was the ruler of a place called Camelot. He was destined to rule it and everything—there was a magic sword in a stone that could only be pulled out by someone worthy, and he did it when he was just a boy! He was a really good king, and the knights that served under him were the best knights, and he protected his land from the people who wanted to invade and conquer it...

[octopups]

[By this time practically all of Amdi are watching her, absolutely rapt.]

Wowww... he sounds amazing! Like Queen Woodcarver! Was he a real person?