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

[strictura]

Hm? Why not?

[littlebratziska]

B-because no one could possibly have gone through all this effort only to ask us to kill each other!

[right???]

Attempting to use most people I have talked to thus far as players in such a scheme would lead to discovery and capture very quickly! And.. and criminals avoid detection, where they can.

[strictura]

I'll agree that most people probably wouldn't, but it's not unimaginable, if they'd get something they wanted enough out of it.

Anyway, it's not like we know what's going on without us now. Children get abducted all the time without it ever making the news. There's always some bigger headline.

[littlebratziska]

How would that be possible? If all they wanted was death then surely there are easier... easier and less elaborate ways to go about it.

[Not to be cruel, but-]

Even if they only wanted to kill children, there are thousands and millions of children that nobody would miss if they vanished, but I am not one of them, and a lot of the people I've talked to so far are not either!

And perhaps there are bigger headlines out there, even than the sudden disappearance of so many children at once, but at least in my case my father will set the police to searching for me.

[strictura]

Sometimes the point is the despair brought on by forcing specific, prominent people to kill each other rather than the deaths themselves.

[ At the mention of her father, he seems to bristle slightly, and there's a soft scoff. ]

Just because your father had that power when you last saw him, it doesn't necessarily mean that same power structure will hold forever.

[littlebratziska]

I last saw him the same day I was kidnapped!!

[strictura]

And you know for a fact that it's still the same day now? [ Shakes his head. ] Either way, the world order can change very quickly. The ones who refuse to believe that tend to be the first to fall when a revolution happens.

[littlebratziska]

My papa isn't a politician, he's a prosecuting attorney! He does not care about who you were outside of court, only that he perfectly have the defendant declared guilty every time! Even if there was a revolution close to happening, which there isn't, I have no reason to expect that would change.

[strictura]

You don't think anyone would want to overturn the so-called "justice" systems of the world? You really are naive.

[littlebratziska]

What reason would anyone who is not already a criminal have to wish to overturn that? The courts see to it that people are fairly punished, after all!

[strictura]

"Fairly"? There are false convictions all the time because of overzealous government and law enforcement officials desperate to fulfill some narrative of good triumphing over evil, while some of the true worst offenders get let off the hook because of their influence. "Justice" is a construct defined by adults in power, and it isn't nearly as black and white as you seem to think it is.