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

[soverainty]

This is like looking at a crime scene...

[Judging by the dust, the damage probably isn't recent?

Are the slices through the Burton films pretty clean, or no? In general Niko probably has a good handle on what various blades and laser cuts look like, so if it was a knife or a sword or something else she'd be able to tell!

Same goes for the stabbed one, she's definitely less familiar with bloodstains, but y'know. Is there just a few drops of blood or does it look like there might have been more? Also she is totally not touching that. Unsanitary!!

Let's hope there are no more stabbed Alices, either.]

[whimsicalism]

[Definitely not recent. Though, telling how long ago it was might be out of the realm possibility.

Since she has some knowledge, it probably was some kind of knife. It didn't come apart cleanly but there's no blood on the Burton films at least.

As for the stabbed one, there's only a few drops. There's no smearing or anything that could indicate that someone tried to wipe it away. There's also not enough to say someone died from it. There's just too little here. Maybe someone cut their hand while committing Alice murder? After all, it's only a few on the label near the hole.

Though, nothing is ever clear in the castle.]

[soverainty]

[Well, the castle can't give up all its secrets on Day 1; sometimes these things have more timely stages; and sometimes you just wonder if the somebody who created this particular mystery is still in this castle. Hm.

Let's move on, and also pretend that the injury was caused by the VHS tape itself. It is awfully sharp, after all. Niko is probably using her cape to handle everything if she absolutely has to. She's going to carefully put everything back in and then...

It might be time to take her haul elsewhere for the moment. Can she check out the library for that animal tooth, or is there anything else to find here?]

[whimsicalism]

[This area is clear for now!

Now, for the library most of the non-fiction books are gone but there's the Zoobooks. Time for some cross-reference!]

[soverainty]

[Okay!! Time to put on her researcher cap and--

Well, no, sadly her outfit doesn't come with any feathered caps but at least she has something spiffy and swishy to serve as a labcoat stand-in! Niko will mosey her way over to the reference section -- wait, why are all the books gone?? -- and promptly gets into like, a wall of Zoobooks here.]

Mmm, if I just had my Neurolinker or any kind of network connection, this would be a piece of cake.

[She's Unsure about how reliable the Zoobooks are but beggars can't be choosers.

Just going to flip through a couple and hope the pictures are high-res enough to identify a tooth.]

[whimsicalism]

[That is a mystery that probably will be solved at some point but maybe has something to do with that big bloodstain Allen found earlier there but, well, ignoring that!

Judging by the tooth itself and if she has some basic knowledge, it's large and sharp enough to be some kind of predator. It might take some time but a few candidates become obvious.

It's some kind of big cat.]

[soverainty]

[Oho. In that case she's actually going to look closer at the tooth and we'll just get this out of the way real quick, does it look like a leopard tooth? She may or may not have a pretty good acquaintance with those.

If not she's just going to keep digging.]

[whimsicalism]

[It's not a leopard. Actually, something she might realize is that while the shape fits a big cat it doesn't seem right for a full grown one. It's not big enough, for one. It's rather clean, too? That is, it's not yellowed from age.]

[soverainty]

[Some kind of baby big cat. Is that what's throwing off her research??

... Does she need to wait and try to determine if their local Castle Cat lost a tooth?? You never know, even if ye olde regular Cheshire Cat doesn't usually count as a big predator of any sort. There's a brief frown but...

If she keep going with the Zoobooks, is there anything else to be gleaned there?]

[whimsicalism]

[That lion looks like it could be a match if it were a younger lion, maybe.]

[soverainty]

[... There wasn't a lion in the tale of Alice in Wonderland, was there?

It's really hard to make sense of this eclectic collection of objects now that she's really putting stuff together, but -- well, it's early yet. She's just going to make a quick mental note before tucking the tooth away again.

There's still the matter of the animal hair but that'll have to wait until they start forming bands all get together and she can get a sense of people...]

[whimsicalism]

[There was one in Through the Looking Glass, though it was a full-grown one.

But, yes, it seems that you have gained all you can from your odd treasure trove! This is clear.]