WEEK 3

[whimsicalism]

All three deaths last were tragic in their own ways. Was trust so fragile in that castle that a simple misunderstanding could end in blood? It seemed to be the case. The trial proved that without a doubt. Surely no one else would make that mistake again. As another week begins the tea cup elevator has granted access to a new area. Maybe the new amusements of a festival will ease your wounded hearts?

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

[It's time for week three! We're almost half-way done with our trip in the castle. Don't forget to submit your memories here and your activity here. Even though, the Queen seems to be a little more steady on her feet you can find her and the other Alice at the audience hall. As always, don't forget to submit your comments for fabulous prizes.]

Comments

[octopups]

[Amdi's been holed up in his room ever since the trial, barring his impromptu midnight movie with Oriko. But by Sunday he's starting to feel... more like a person again. Like he should be doing something, something besides being a burden to his new friends.]

[So when he hears an unusual amount of shuffling and commotion outside, he gets curious enough to crack open his door softly and peek one small head out.]

[He catches sight of someone going into a room that isn't theirs, and he's worried for a moment, but then he sees other rooms open, ones he knew hadn't been open before. Did they... find more of the previous kids' things?]

[He slips a few members all the way out the door to look around, and then the rest of himself. He pads extra-softly across the carpeted floor toward the new objects on the floor, a purple stuffed animal and some flowers. He's... not entirely sure how this works, but he's already out here so what the heck, he has enough mouths to pick up both the plush and every individual flower so that's what he does.]

[And now he is going to quietly walk all of himself up and down the hall in front of every unoccupied room until something happens.]

[whimsicalism]

[Violet's room now has a second nameplate. On it is Mikhail Our Mistake. When the flowers go near this door, it swings open.

Mikhail didn't seem to be a very clean, uh, person? This room's a mess.]

[octopups]

[Violet's room...]

[Amdi gathers himself up and steps through the door... and realizes this is definitely no longer Violet's room. He remembered the trial well enough, and he remembered Violet. He knew more or less how the room should look, and this wasn't it. What's going on?]

[Amdi spreads himself out around the room to look for... he's not really sure what, yet. What stands out about it? In what ways is it messy, exactly?]

[whimsicalism]

[Well, first, the bed is... squashed. The frame is broken to bits. That's not to say it's been torn up or anything just as if something large was laying on it constantly.

Dried flowers are draped everywhere and... the number zero has been drawn a lot on the walls and doors. Plus, like, little bits of meat are scattered on the floor.]

[octopups]

[That's... pretty weird. And even if it had still seemed to be Violet's room, there's not way it could have gotten messed up like this since the trial without Amdi having heard it five doors down.]

[He looks back at the door, at the second nameplate. He's... starting to believe that maybe there is a lot more to the geometry of this place. That even if it's the same door, no one has been in this room since... before.]

[Anyway, back to investigating. Amdi both looks and sniffs around the bed, delicately pawing at the frame bits and trying not to gag on the nearby meat smell. Obviously whoever was here before was pretty big. Is there anything about the shape of the, uh, remains of the bed that indicate what kind of critter slept there? Anything in or around the remains of the frame?]

[whimsicalism]

[Well, there's some scratches in the bed to indicate claws. Some scuffing on the walls for a wing or tail.

The window itself is just a hut. There's also a portrait among the mess. As for the critter itself?

Has Amdi smelled anything reptilian before?]

[octopups]

[Actually, he hasn't, since he's lived his whole life within his planet's arctic circle. There might not even be any reptiles to speak of on his whole planet. So he definitely doesn't know what to make of the smell.]

[And when he finds the portrait, dusts it off and looks at it up and down from several angles, he will probably have no idea what to make of the person in the picture either. What does he see?]

[whimsicalism]

[Well, I don't know what he's going to make of the picture of Mikhail, then.

Mikhail - Our Mistake
Age: 1
Height: ??? (dragon)
Weight: ??? (dragon)
Likes: Zero, singing, eating
Dislikes: Killing, wyverns

"I'm not a stinky dragon, nor am I a dirty dragon,
Hop on my back and let's go for a ride. Yay!" - Mikhail

On the back is a piece of paper with the words: Died the seventh week. Poisoned by eating chicken and doughnuts prepared by Viola. Accidentally killed Esther and Dani Dennison when he died in mid-flight.]

[octopups]

[Welp, he sure doesn't know what the heck this person is, but frankly he is lowkey delighted to confirm that there was yet another not-at-all-human kid in the castle, even if he's gone now. He feels a bit outnumbered sometimes.]

[He reads the profile, while also looking around the room. The fact that he likes the number zero so much makes Amdi like this guy even more, he agrees that it is a totally rad mathematical concept, but drawing it all over the room seems kinda excessive. When he turns the portrait over to read the back, he is saddened but not really surprised.]

[He carries the portrait with him as he examines the rest of the room. Anything on the desk or in the drawers or the wardrobe? (Probably not he's a fuckin dragon but hey Amdi doesn't know what to expect).]

[whimsicalism]

[Someone apparently didn't tell the person who drew the numbers that Zero was a person's name. Or maybe Mikhail just thought it was funny. Who knows now.

Anyway, just a lot of different flowers from the garden. Dried now. There's nothing in the wardrobe, unfortunately.]

[octopups]

[Just for curiosity's sake, are any of them the same kind of flower as the ones Amdi used to open the door?]

[In either case Amdi is going to carry the portrait out of the room and fully walk out the door. Then, also for curiosity's sake but probably more relevantly, he's gonna try and close the door fully, and then touch Violet's doorplate and open it again.]

[whimsicalism]

[Nope, these look like they were taken from the garden. As for going back into Violet's room?

Go right ahead. Nothing's changed here. This room is clear.]

[octopups]

[Amdi pokes a few members into Violet's room, fascinated. Welp, this confirms it. Either the stuff the castle's made of can rapidly morph into different forms, or there are extra spacial dimensions at play. He kind of hopes it's the latter, honestly. At least that can be mathematically described.]

[Just to test his idea, he's going to quickly run in and simultaneously nom on the leg of Violet's chair and some non-pointy part of the disassembled VCR to check if they're still squishy.]

[whimsicalism]

[The same thing that happened with the VCR tape happens if he focuses super hard. That they feel more familiar to him compared to what they should be. In this case, like they were covered in Tine padding or a more familiar material native to his planet.]

[octopups]

[Well in that case the wooden chair leg feels entirely normal and the plastic VHS feels like the other one did, just for a sec, like a padded handle or something. This is very strange.]

[While he's nomming on things, though, he does notice something that is very familiar up on Violet's desk and hops up on her chair to look. It's... his quill pen and ink case. From back home.]

[For a moment Amdi is confused, until he realizes that this must have come out of the vending machine, like some other peoples' back-home things have. And then, even more briefly, he's a little angry. Why didn't she give it to him?]

[Oh. Duh. Apart from the bent rachis, it probably looks a lot like a human quill pen set. He knew from Manaka that other planets had birds, and there's only so many ways to make a pen. She'd have no way of knowing it was his. Judging by the inked nib and one partly-used bottle, she even seems to have used it. He's... glad to have helped someone here, if only in a small, accidental way. Still, he's a bit sad as he gathers the quills and bottles and nibs into the wooden case and closes it up, then carries the whole ensemble back to his room.]

[But before he goes, he opens Mikhail's room again and props his portrait up against the desk. And in front of it, he places Mikhail's flowers.]

[whimsicalism]

[The room is quiet but somewhere Mikhail might have approve of this. Amdi is a good boy.]