You're My Friend, They're My Friends (IC Intro)

[whimsicalism]

Whatever you were doing before, wherever you were before this moment it doesn't matter. The world seems to grow dark around you: an almost inaudible giggle floats to your year before you lose consciousness completely. Other it belonging to a child there's no defining characteristics of the voice. Maybe you just imagined it? Even if you did, one thing is clear when you wake up.

You're not where you were before. The bedroom you find yourself is plush and well decorated, almost like a fancy hotel or apartment. That might be little comfort considering that it's clear that you don't recognize it. Before you rush off to explore your surroundings there's a message pinned to the door to the hall.

From the desk of the Queen:

Hello, my friends dear.

I can only hope you enjoy your new life here. For those you stirring from sleep, this is my promise that I will keep: I will let you go if that is what you desire but the price for it will be quite dire.

For my rules are quite clear that I don't wish you to leave. Yet I will, if you can take the grief.

If you wish to know my name and the reasons to my game, meet in the audience hall for tea. Tea, yes, a grand tea party for my grand guests! Cake and sweets are what we need to meet. In an hour we both will be there, no peeking before!

Signed,

Instead of a signature, there's a small feline paw print underneath as well as some strange sort of heart crest?

There seems to be others moving outside your room. Perhaps it's time to explore, to see if anyone else knows what's going on. Don't slip on the playing card (an ace of hearts, with the heart shape replaced by the strange crest). That there's a scribbled phrase of 'dormez-vous? dormez-vous?' on the card but surely one of the others slipped it under your door.

This Castle seems like a strange place ot live in... yet for now it's quiet and peaceful, even if the Audience Hall is locked.

Comments

cw; child abuse

[byzer0]

What? Everyone has them until—ohhh I get it, you lost them when you were really young, and now you can't remember. It's a self defensive mechanism or something, right?

cw; child abuse but the asoue player didnt bring it up, wild

[theawfulaccount]

I... no? I can assure you that you are the first person with that sort of ears I have ever met, and I don't enjoy whatever it is you're implying.

a truely unfortunate series of events

[byzer0]

I'm not the first, or are you blind too?

[ Pointing to Youji who is probably a mere several feet away and then again at Youji's profile. ]

[theawfulaccount]

You're the first of the two of you to speak to me, and if seeing a portrait means I've met someone then I'm excellent friends with Jules Verne.

[byzer0]

Meeting someone and being friends with someone are two entirely different things. And who's Jules Verde, anyway?

[ He's gotta sound out that name a little bit, but he's perhaps surprisingly careful to make sure he says it right. ]

[theawfulaccount]

Jules Verne? The author?

[byzer0]

Never heard of them or their boring books.

[theawfulaccount]

Jules Verne is hardly boring!

[ In a moment I can safely say I have never experienced in my years of authorship, having never personally seen one, Violet thought very strongly that she did not like this cat-boy. ]

You're just trying to irritate me at this point, aren't you?

[byzer0]

If I was trying, you'd know. [ That kind of sounds like a challenge, his one eye bright, tail swishing once. ]

[theawfulaccount]

Ugh.

[ And yet, Violet thinks, it's almost refreshing to have what she assumes is an antagonistic conversation without lethal stakes. It's almost novel, a word which here means "something you are not used to, and therefore need a polite way to put forward that you neither enjoy or loathe it." ]

Regardless, the point is that wherever you come from and wherever I come from must be very different, because I've never seen anyone with ears like yours before I arrived... wherever we are.

[byzer0]

[ He laughs, happy enough to get that reaction from her. ]

Not even newborn babies? [ Honestly he's not sure how much believes her but curiosity got the cat. ] How do you tell who's an adult then?

[theawfulaccount]

The legal age of adulthood, I suppose. Though I've been through quite enough to know it's a bit more complicated in some areas.

[ Hold a moment. ]

Do... adults not have the ears where you come from?

[byzer0]

Ears and a tail! [ Swish. ] They fall off when you have sex, just like that.

[theawfulaccount]

[ Ah. Violet is, of course, a well-educated girl, she is not unfamiliar with the concept raised here. But she is also a polite girl, or at least has been for some time, and the casual mention in the year... well, whatever year all this happened in, exactly, does give her a moment of pause before she responds. ]

I... see. Which explains the reaction you had when you saw me.