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

WEDNESDAY

[whimsicalism]

meeting

[strictura]

[ A little before lunch, Nagisa will ask everyone to meet up in the Julys food court. He'll wait a bit so that everyone has time to grab some food, then stand up in front of everyone.

...It's a little unnerving how easily they all fit around these few tables now after how many they started with. ]

Thanks for coming. There are a few things I wanted to address this week.

The main one is what we know about the possibilities for ending the game, specifically with regard to the previous round. When I'd spoken with the Cat about it previously, she'd told me that all thirty-one of the participants in that round had been "disqualified" because so many of them had broken rules. Having found out more about that round's cases since then, though, it looked like they'd only actually had one death resulting from a broken rule in the first eleven weeks, so that didn't seem to add up.

I asked her about this more recently and was told that everyone in that round had been disqualified because the remaining participants toward the end had taken what she called a "forbidden action" -- meaning the actions of a few resulted in condemnation for everyone, including victims of earlier cases who hadn't done anything wrong and had no say in the actions of the living at that point.

The two possible conditions she gave for ending the game and reviving the participants via the Queen's Glass Game are --

One: having someone get away with a murder, as we've been told since the beginning; or, two: someone taking this "forbidden action." However, if a majority of the living participants are involved in that action, then everyone both living and dead will be disqualified.

Given what she said about Sakuraba's attempt to kill the Queen at last week's trial, and that porcelain dust that Uno found by the damaged elevator door before, I think it's probably safe to assume that the murder of the Queen is the forbidden action. ...So in actuality, everyone in our group who attempted to attack her may have been on the right track, looking at the big picture. Anyone who succeeded on their own would be disqualified, but everyone else would supposedly be brought back and the game would be over.

With that in mind, I need it to be clear to everyone that teaming up to take her down is quite possibly the worst course of action we could take. I can't in good conscience encourage attempts to act as a lone martyr, given how miserably every such attempt has failed so far, but if one were to actually succeed... that would likely be in everyone else's best interest.

[ So. He won't necessarily try to hold them back from trying anymore, either. ]

The other thing I wanted to address is this week's motive, for anyone who may have been tempted either last week or now. We know that the Queen, who was dead before this, is only able to exist in this world. For that reason, I would suspect that if the Cat were to bring someone any of us knew back from the dead, they may also be confined to this world. You'll note that they didn't specify that these reunions with our lost things would actually take place in our own worlds. This restriction may not apply to missing objects or living people, but I would hope that no one would take such a risk for something like that.

Anyway... sorry for going on for so long. As always, please share your thoughts and any findings of your own.

clue discussion

[strictura]

[ take it away, oriko ]

[xxxx_me]

[He's been kind of distant all week, but he'll set down quite a number of papers and drawings, each paper matched to the correct drawing.]

...I found these stuffed inside the toys at the Build-A-Friend. It looks like the last group was trying to figure out who the Storyteller was, but they looked and sounded different to everyone.

...

For someone, the Storyteller appeared as Oriko. But also...

[He gestures at the drawing and paper in question.]

...The Storyteller looked like Cheshire Alice, and I think "Dolly" must have been Queen Alice.

[nothingposh]

Wonder if that's unique to them or they're just more powerful than the Alices. Could be either, I guess.

[xxxx_me]

Maybe Cheshire Alice will finally tell us if someone asks.

[Though his tone is flat; he doesn't have much faith in her.]

[nothingposh]

Not when everything hinges on us believing she can do any of the things she says.

[He holds up his envelope from yesterday. He did open it, but that's not really the point here.]

[prescience]

Of course. That would have been Kirika.

[xxxx_me]

She was very focused on you.

[prescience]

[That is the understatement of the year, but Oriko doesn't seem particularly phased by it.]

We're partners. Doesn't that make sense.

It might have been harder to fool her with an illusion, the way her mind works.

[Worked, Oriko's brain reminds herself, and she stops talking.]

1/2

[prescience]

As Shingetsu-san says, we’ve been conclusively told there are two reasons the Cat may be moved to end the game. Either someone successfully kills another player and evades suspicion, or a player takes the forbidden action. The forbidden action is also a disqualifying one, so it is, for the time being, as unpalatable an option as the other. But there are very few of us remaining…if this mystery is going to be unraveled, it has to be soon.

I pose the question: What are the alternatives? How do you force a hand without it knowing that it’s been forced?

I’ve a few documents I think would be best reviewed by the group. [Oriko drops down the medical chart she found in the museum’s replica hospital.]

The hospital in the museum is virtually untouched. While it isn’t a pleasant place to be, I think it may have seen the least traffic out of all areas in this castle. There’s a room inside with a staged inpatient care room, and this is the information on the “patient” there. While there isn’t a name, I’ve no doubt it reflects what happened to her, a long time ago.

… [She takes a second to swallow.] She suffered. I wouldn’t look at it unless you’re ready. The last page, I think, bears the Storyteller’s writing as well.

[To the table she adds a handwritten journal detailing the Holy Grail War.]

I received this from the machine in the dining hall. It must have once belonged to Manaka Sajyou-san. I don’t think there’s much new information to be gleaned from its contents, but it isn’t doing any good sitting in my room. We have reasonable evidence that the Cat is truly called Nursery Rhyme, and evidence to believe that this name could also be a source of understanding her weaknesses.

All roads, it seems, lead to stories.

[prescience]

Also, Number One-san is being followed by a doll that may be the remnants of one of the previous round's participants. This is, I believe, the first evidence we have of them that isn't a written record, murder weapon, or previous possession.

It is unsettling.

[strictura]

[ Looks at the doll...............

...Looks away. ]

I'd come to the same conclusion about her true name. If she's essentially the personification of a nursery rhyme anthology, then I think it would make sense to look at this as if she were a book herself, since she already seems to relate to other books that way.

Looking at it that way, one could argue that a book only has a purpose so long as there's someone around to read it, so my best guess is that her weakness might be being left behind by the children who once enjoyed her -- in which case we might make progress by trying to bring the Queen more into our fold and away from her.

[battlestations]

[Nigel has been a little out of it since the motive (though given what his picture showed... probably not for the reasons you'd normally think?) After following the other discussions, he pulls out an ornate, scary knife... Then he lays it on the table, it's fine.]

Here's what I found. I'd wager this knife is even more cursed than Aya's. I felt a disturbance of some kind when I picked it up. As though a chorus of voices cried out in terror...

[he didn't actually hear anything. sometimes as a KND operative you just gotta make movie references with a straight face. it's the law]

In any case, I don't want to take any chances with this one. Who wants to turn back time with me?

[strictura]

I can if you want. Where was it that you found this?

[battlestations]

Near those 'buildings' in the city center. They all had the dried lilies at the front as well... I had a bad feeling when I spotted that, and then I found the knife.

free discussion

[strictura]

[imozon]

I tried cutting down Manaka's tree in the garden. It bled a lot and then it grew back.

[She's so annoyed.]

[strictura]

...Thanks.

[imozon]

After it grew back it started throwing apples at me.

[Well, more like dropping them.]

POST-MEET CLOCK SHENANIGANS

[battlestations]

[as they agreed upon, after the meeting Nagisa has gone up to the city center and Nigel is at the clock.

Wind and wind the hands of time, show us kids the heckin crime]

Clock

[whimsicalism]

[Things don't seem to change much at the city center. Just a plate balanced on a doll house as there seems to be a meeting going on. From near the cookies a teenage girl is speaking.]

I don't really think we should be doing this and leaving all the younger ones alone. Not after what happened...

[Another teenage girl speaks up.]

What with the dogs and the lion or the stupid car? You kinda have to be more specific, blondie.

[A third teenager speaks up.]

Kirika! We're not here to argue. We have to find out a way out and soon.

[A fourth voice, a boy's this time speaks out.]

She's right, y'know! We just popped up here for a little chat is all. We're not abandoning our mates or anything like that!

[These four seem to argue for a bit, talking about the Storyteller and how they really need to get things figured out soon. It seems there's been a lot of accidents the previous week that had severely cut their numbers down. More importantly, though, a familiar scream rings out during this discussion and sounds of all people at the meeting suddenly standing up from their makeshift seats.]

[strictura]

[ Nagisa is there when Nigel makes it back, and he gestures silently toward where things are starting so as not to speak over the voices and miss anything.

That first name that comes up... ah. This is the one who was Oriko's partner, right? He frowns and glances at Nigel; it's not like there's a pause button on this, so he can't exactly go and ask if she wants to hear it. But also... maybe it's better if they hear it first anyway, since they already know this isn't going to end well.

...

Whose scream does it sound like? Alice's? ]

[whimsicalism]

[It sure does sound like Alice. In fact, she also seems to be running judging how fast those foot steps are.]

"Miss Maria--!"

[Here she is, you can practically hear her slamming into one of thee teenagers.]

W-what's happening?

Dolly's lost her mind, that's what!

[The other members of the meeting start talking over each other as Alice begins to speak again.]

"It's Jack! She--she killed Lizzie and Miyo and probably Charlie now, too--I ran away as fast as I could but--!"

Wait, weren't you having a sleepover with her?

We can't just stand around here--!

[battlestations]

Lizzie?

[He's freaking out for a brief moment at that but - it's probably another Lizzie, right? RIGHT? He's trying to regain his composure here.]

After them if they run!