WEEK 5

[whimsicalism]

Five deaths in one week. With the end of the last trial, you've lost eleven people in total. There's only ten people in the twisted wonderland of the Castle. Even if the new area is cheerful something seems just a little bit off. The arcade has gained a new arcade machine and the ghosts in the graveyard seem to have returned to their mechanical routines. Your powers, too, seem to be gone once more. It seems Halloween has ended for good now as your fifth week in this strange building continues.

Just when will this game end...?

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

[Welcome to Week 5! Don't forget to submit your memory losses and your weekly AC here. The Alices can be found in their audience hall. However, the Queen can be found roaming the castle this week! Just put 'Alice' in the headline and she might pay your character a visit. As always, don't forget to turn in threads for fabulous prizes.]

Comments

TUESDAY

[whimsicalism]

MOTIVE

[whimsicalism]

[Looks like the audience chamber is finally repaired! Maybe the triple death last week helped? Anyway both of the Alices are looking alert. There's a table in front of the balcony this time with ten envelopes on top. Each one has a smaller version of your portrait to identify them.]

I know this is getting long but... well, I think it'll be alright.

Whose side are you on?!

Don't joke, Alice.

Anyway. Inside each envelope is a picture of an item or person you might have lost. A golden ball that went inside a well. A ring stolen. A mother taken by Death or a friend lost to an argument. It doesn't matter. I will bring that precious thing back to you. No matter what it is. Obviously, I picked items that aren't inside the vending machine and for the sake of this motive, the lost person doesn't have to be dead. I do hope this time someone is actually clever enough to get away with it. No peeking at other people's pictures!

[The Queen shakes her head sadly.]

We're not going to punish you if you do, though. Everyone needs their secrets so don't be too hard on anyone if they don't let you. Everyone please keep safe.

[OOC: As a note, the picture can be of a person or object that your character has forgotten.]

[xxxx_me]

[It would be wiser not to. But he still takes the envelope, opens it up, and peers inside.

...

......

.........

And then, silently, he slides the picture back inside and closes up the envelope again.]

[strictura]

[ Watches... ]

Are you okay?

[xxxx_me]

[It takes him a moment, but he gives a small nod.]

...Yeah.

[ballooncaged]

[Mizuki flips her envelope open with both thumbs. Then gives a strangled yelp and flaps it shut again right away.]

Disgusting. You're completely disgusting.

[strictura]

[ Ugh... He would have told her not to open it if he'd gotten to her sooner. ]

...Yeah. Don't listen to what they're saying.

[ballooncaged]

We shouldn't look at these!

[She nods down at her envelope and starts folding it.]

Doesn't change anything. Keep moving forward, keep moving forward.

[But... she can't commit to crumpling it. In her pocket goes the envelope in a gate fold.]

[golden_king]

Yeah, that's a good word for it.

But we can be sure that someone will take that chance, given how many people have lost someone at any rate.

[ballooncaged]

And you haven't? Or is it so many it doesn't matter to you anymore?

Re: MOTIVE

[seventhlittlemonster]

[...he won't suffer by opening the envelope. What has he ever truly lost other than those here?

He just took the envelope and. fuckin EATS it.]

[battlestations]

[Knowledge is power, so he opens it. Now he's squinting at what's inside his envelope.

It's a picture of Nigel with hair.]

[strictura]

[ Glances over out of curiosity...

...and looks away without saying anything, confused. Is that a long lost twin or something, he wonders, or are the Alices just... literally suggesting he kill one of his friends for hair. ]

[battlestations]

[To be fair it's INCREDIBLY GLAMOROUS hair. The girls would be all over him - real girls, not just this creepy doll one that's been standing too close to him and giggling]

[strictura]

[ There are two distinct possibilities that come to mind for the picture he's been given. One, he thinks, it would at least be nice to have a picture of; the other he doesn't want to see at all.

...Maybe he'll decide to look later, but for now he just tucks the unopened envelope away in his pocket. ]

[prescience]

[Oriko watches him tuck away his envelope, still holding hers with the seal unbroken.]

I was thinking of doing the same thing. Is it better just not to know, or are we just trying to hide something from ourselves?

[strictura]

It probably depends. If there's more than one person it could potentially be, and if you have stronger feelings for one than for the other, I think it might be better not to know.

...Of course, if you have enough restraint to keep yourself from looking, maybe you don't have to worry about being convinced to act by something like this in the first place.

[octopups]

[Amdi takes the envelope thoughtfully, curious but not really tense. Apparently all the others are sealed but his only has the flap folded down (thnx yue alice) so it's not hard for him to open. His posture is loose as he pulls out the paper and unfolds the picture.]

[For a moment several of him stare at it and cock their heads, clearly confused. But then all of his eyes widen and he drops the picture from his mouth like it's on fire, all of him scrambling a few feet back to get away from it. Several of him look up at the Alices in desperate despair.]

Th-that's not fair! That's not fair!!

[For anyone who cares to look, the picture on the floor is of two adult humans, a man and a woman, brown-skinned and black-haired and smiling brightly at each other. They're standing on a heather-covered hill slope wearing some the of close-cut unadorned clothing that looks like it's just the base layer for something else. Behind them is a steep metal stairway stretching down to the ground out of an opening in an otherwise smooth greenish metal hull.]

[nothingposh]

Nothing about this is fair. That's the point, ain't it?

[Gavroche didn't actually open his envelope, but he does pick Amdi's picture up and tuck it back into the envelope it came from. No need to have that out in the open.]

[octopups]

[Amdi is mostly hunkered down on the floor trembling a little and still staring up at Alice, but he does notice Gavroche.]

I-I know, but, but...!

[After a moment one of him hesitantly walks towards Gavroche, reaching out its long neck as though to take the envelope, but he doesn't actually open his mouth to grab it yet.]

[xxxx_me]

[Nagisa did mention Amdi, so...

Hm. Watching this.]

[octopups]

[Amdi sees you watching, Allen.]

[In fact, a couple of him start tentatively walking towards you. At the same time a few of him start walking the other way, toward the door of the Audience Chamber. But then all of him stop, and stumble a little, and look around at each other. In the end Amdi just ends up shuffling off to the side and bunching up again around the member holding the letter.]

Investigation and Open

[octopups]

[Investigation]

[After Alice's meeting and the envelops, Amdi goes off to be alone. He hasn't been to the new area yet, so for lack of any particular destination he goes there.]

[He ends up in the hall of mirrors, and for a moment he just stands in the entranceway totally fascinated. Silvered mirrors are rare and expensive on Tinesword and these are the biggest he's ever seen.]

[He walks a couple members in and looks around. What's he see?]

[What's that in the mirror?]

[Eventually, though, he can simply be found laying in a clump in the mirror hall, staring into one particular mirror. Eight little human kids sit staring back, five boys and three girls, all around 7 or 8 years old, all of them brown-skinned and black haired. He still has the envelope with him.]

[If he hears someone come into the maze he won't leave, but he will turn a couple of heads to look around.]

Who's there?

[whimsicalism]

[There are many strange sights in the mirrors. Such as seeing himself as eight incredibly tall Tines instead.

Though... there is something amiss among the odd mirrors. He might see something moving in one of the mirrors, though just one.]

[octopups]

[Oh hey, that's kinda neat! Amdi's going to trot a member up and examine the surface of mirror where he looks tall. He knows a little bit about optics, so he's expecting it to have an outward bend. Does it?]

[At the same time, another one of him catches the movement out of the corner of its eye and he snaps a couple of heads around to look in that direction, and then (perhaps a little more cautiously) walk a couple of members toward that mirror too. If it's too far away from the tall-making mirror, he'll reluctantly string himself out a bit.]