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

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.]

[xxxx_me]

She's committed to the story thing, so maybe it's far enough that she'll say something.

[Not necessarily what they need to know, just.

Something.]

[nothingposh]

It don't really work like that, in my experience. [He hesitates.] Maybe she's got different rules, though.

[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.]

[xxxx_me]

...? The way her mind works?

[prescience]

I don't think anyone knows me as well as she did.

[The switch to past tense does not feel good.]

That may have made it easier to look past the trick.

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.

[xxxx_me]

[He reads through the entire note, expression mostly blank.]

...

What if we find a happy ending for Queen Alice? If she's so obsessed with stories, she might not have any power anymore if it's over.

[strictura]

I think that's a reasonable goal in theory, but actually getting to it is another matter. Did you have anything in mind?

[battlestations]

[FOR THE RECORD Nigel meant it when he said he'd try to keep the doll out of important matters so Aya is currently just... Lurching around as she follows a rainbow monkey dangling from a stick that's been stuck to the back of her clothes. Looks like the date trip to build-a-bear was a success...?]

[prescience]

[The doll seems well occupied, at least. Good job, Nigel.

Oriko holds her chin loosely, pondering.]

I think Alice-san is already feeling a little alienated by the Cat's actions. But I think the Cat is also truly the only thing sustaining her.

[strictura]

I wonder if it would be possible to come up with some alternate means of keeping her alive for a while.

[ ... ]

Building on that "happy ending" goal Allen suggested... maybe what we should be trying to do is play with her to a point where she can feel satisfied that she's had enough fun, so she can eventually move on from all of this. She keeps saying she doesn't want to die yet because she still wants to play more, right?

[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.

[strictura]

[ Does each lily mark where someone died? He never actually saw them any of the other times, but that seems like a reasonable conclusion. How many were there, he wonders...? ]

If you want to go down and turn the clock back when we're done with this, I can wait up here and make sure everyone stays out of the way in case the train goes off the rails or something.

[battlestations]

[He kind of just jumped to that conclusion himself.]

A train crash would explain a lot... but there's still the knife, so hopefully that won't be the case. Still, I think that would be for the best. You never know what will happen when the potential death count is that high.

[...Part of him is cringing about how casual it's become to talk about death. In fact, he seems to have lost some confidence in general.]