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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[All you Fates stuck in the 1990's, it's just tragic.

Niko gives her a bit of a baffled look, because at this point she probably hasn't had too much of the timeline conversion conversation. Timeline gaps, world gaps, this is all way too bananas for one girl who's apparently gone back in time..... or something.]

Really really. Everything's digital or in the cloud nowadays, so a lot of physical media is on its way out? Some people say it's a pity, but I don't really understand, either.

I wonder why everything here is so old?

In the cloud, is it... I see.

[ Likewise, even for a girl gifted with omniscient eyes, it's a bit much for her to understand the specifics. But the subject of technology has never mattered much to Manaka, and in that classic magus way, her contact with even VCRs was limited to what she might encounter in the world outside her home. ]

Well... It's a castle, isn't it? [ Something about that makes Manaka giggle. The tips of her fingers touch together. ] What kind of technology do you think about when you imagine a place like that? It's probably a wonder that it even has a VCR at all!

[It's hard to tell if she actually sees....... but Niko isn't going to call out a stranger she just met on this?? Instead she'll just try to smile helpfully even if she's actually just randomly trying buttons on the VCR.

More or less, she can tell what most of them are for, but there might be a stack of un-rewound tapes nearby just. Sitting. Because rewinding is confusing and too much effort just yet when you've been kidnapped.]

That's what it sounds like... a Castle, I mean. I haven't been able to see all of it yet. [there's a slight tilt of the head at Manaka's sudden giggle, an uncertain sort of smile back??] But I think they also refurbish castles nowadays. So people wouldn't really live in the original conditions...?

Ah, yeah— Of course if you go to a real castle that people really live in, it's refurbished. But I don't think this castle is real. It's more like... Someone's idea of what a castle is. So, you'd expect the inside of it to be like a fairy tale! [ Another little laugh, and then: ] Maybe the person who made it likes VCRs, too~

Hmm? It's not a real castle?

[She blinks and taps a small finger against her chin in thought, looking around at their surroundings again. She'd been thinking of this castle too when she'd said refurbished, but it's not like they know exactly what the outside looks like yet. At least, she doesn't. It's... a confusing state of affairs.]

Did you see the outside already? I haven't found the way yet. So I don't know if it's supposed to be like a fairy tale, or something more modern, or both.

Mm-hm! [ Manaka nods. ] There's a garden outside, if you want to go look. Everything out there is way too perfect to be real... Oh, and if you decide to try going over the hedges, it just takes you back into the foyer, somehow. There are a few ways I can think of to create an effect like that, but with everything else, doesn't it seem simplest to assume this place was made from someone's imagination?

[ Well, to Manaka, it does. ]

Oh! That sounds like something I've seen before... I think. Like the boundaries in a game. That's what the paper said too, right?

[This bizarre loop-de-loop actually seems to reassure her??

Sometimes videogame logic is Good, Actually. Maybe. Niko looks like she's busy rethinking a bunch of things in light of this new information...]

Someone's imagination -- I guess you could say that, too.

[Videogames are fiction, ergo imagined, ergo, this totally works??]

Ah, yeah, like boundaries in a game! [ Manaka isn't thinking about video games when she says it, but it seems like the point translates well enough. ] That's how the rules described it, too, after all. This whole place must have been created to be a gameboard for the Queen.

I might have to try it for myself...

[She's so reassured she's apparently totally going to go adventuring. This will end well!

Regardless of any disconnect here, they're at least progressing using some measure of parallel logic. Niko nods slowly at the idea of a gameboard, even if it isn't exactly how she would have described it either.]

There seem to be a bunch of other... players? Here. The Queen is definitely running some kind of game, but I don't know if I can tell why the castle is like this, still.

[Do they really need VCR players for a death(??) game??]

Hm, well... If it's just made up out of someone's imagination, it's probably just filled with the kind of stuff they thought we'd like, right? Even though the rules say we have to kill someone to win the game, they also talk about making friends, too.

Even... Even if it's imagination, and even if it's just the wording of the game, it seems like a little much to bring us together only to pit us against each other.

[There's a soft weight to that, somewhere underneath the light touch of her tone in general and the unhappy confusion of being trapped in a place like this. She has standards, apparently.]

The same goes for giving us someplace nicer to stay, even if-- [even if it's kind of out of date, to her, still] Are you... okay with this?

[Manaka seems pretty calm, after all.]

Mm-hm. I don't mind it. [ She smiles, and despite the topic, the expression is soft. ] The only thing that bothers me is the idea of losing precious memories... Ah, but as long as someone ends the game before they reach the important ones, it'll be fine.

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject