WEEK 6

[whimsicalism]

Only one of your group died last week but the castle feels empty somehow. Whatever your thoughts on Alice were she did seem to curb the Cat's--no, the Storyteller's--impulses somewhat. Even if the Storyteller gave an end date for the game there seems to be a sinister air around the castle now. There's an area for the adventurous, at least?

Still, it likely won't help heal the wounds from last week... though, apparently, the Storyteller has decided to refill the library.

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

[Hello to week six, the last normal week before endgame! Don't forget to lose a memory. There's no AC this week! You can find the Storyteller at the audience chamber if you really want. As always you can turn in your threads for fabulous prizes!]

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SUNDAY

[whimsicalism]

TREEHOUSE INVESTIGATION

[battlestations]

[EXCELLENT THAT THERE IS A TREEHOUSE HERE. Now let's make sure there aren't any more severed heads in here we'd have to clear out to make this a proper KND headquarters, or anything else suspect like that.]

[whimsicalism]

[There's nothing obviously off! No severed heads, no pools of dried blood, or anything like that. No, there is something here that probably actually would make sense in a KND headquarters. A clearly handmade binder filled with...

Well, the best word would be that it's filled with profiles of various monsters. Some of the pictures are just a child's drawing with a label while others are photographs. There's a wide variety here. The written title of this book is: A Guide to Monsters by the Kids of Apple Court.

The handwriting, the pictures and profiles are things that he hasn't seen before.]

[battlestations]

[thanks for getting that out of the way. But the binder looks interesting. Even if he doesn't know where Apple Court is or why it has monsters.

Let's just sit on some furniture with this and flip through it. What've we got?]

[whimsicalism]

[While there's some interesting stuff, there's an intro page that's stuck to the profiles in the beginning of the binder that probably needs to be read first.

We don't know why Closetland is growing or why monsters are starting to effect teenagers now, too. That's why we've decided to start writing this guide for any poor kid finding themselves there. We're a group of kids from Apple Court, a suburb in [this part is blacked out]. Maybe like you we've seen our fair share of monsters like any kid has.

Bad people are different than monsters. A bully or a bad parent doesn't have to be a monster. I don't like saying that but it's true. A bully that suddenly can throw a car at you might be possessed and the creepy uncle that suddenly is spending a lot of time in the graveyard might be a wizard trying to make zombies but being creepy or mean doesn't make someone or something a monster.

Things that are supernatural aren't always monsters, either. The ghost of your grandmother might only help you but that doesn't mean she's going to start attacking someone else.

Monsters, though, are different. They live off fear. Monsters are always things that you're afraid of even if not everything you're afraid of is a monster. Even things that shouldn't be scary can be a monster if something has changed. Your friendly dog might become a rabid hellhound if the jerk down the road started spreading a rumor that Speckles attacked them in the middle of the night.

That doesn't mean monsters can't return to normal. We'll talk about that, later, though. For now this binder is just to help you to identify monsters.]

[battlestations]

[Now this is some juicy stuff! Information about Closetland has been hard to come by. He's curious what kind of monster this is supposed to be that's affecting teenagers and adults somehow. Even dogs, huh? That's no good!

Let's keep going then!]

[whimsicalism]

[There's another short note before it gets into deets about individual monsters:

What We Know About Closetland and Monsters

1. All monsters are born out of fear.

2-A. All monsters have something they want. Some kids call it a wish or a need. Most monsters will leave you alone if they get what they want or become harmless. If that mean junkyard dog gets a steak he'll probably turn back to normal. If you fix the gravestones in the graveyard the zombies will probably go back to their graves.

2-B. Obviously that want could be something that's very bad. It might even make the monster more powerful but normally that's not the case.

3. All monsters have weaknesses. They might not be the same for each one, though. A vampire might die in the sunlight but a plant monster won't.

4. All monsters hate

The page is torn off here. It seems that the introductory stuff is done, though. Want to dive into some monster lore?]

[battlestations]

[well that was rude of whoever tore that page! At the risk of sounding like Rhyme, this book killer is a jerk!

But yeah, never hurts to be prepared. What's the lore, librarian?]

[whimsicalism]

[There are a lot of different types of monsters. It looks like the kids from Apple Court pooled their knowledge (and probably that of their classmates or friends, judging by the sheer amount of different handwriting here) of all sorts of things. From stuff like monsters under the bed, to a new babysitter that was actually a mantis monster in disguise, to a whole bunch of gremlins that attacked Apple Court one hot summer day. Most of the monsters probably seem normal enough to a person like Nigel, though.

They all follow the same format: a picture (be it a drawing or a photo), a name, a list of qualities, some weaknesses, a guess at what it wanted, and also what the kid did to get rid of it.

Yet near the end there's a change. A page declares Monsters that started attacking teens. While the others seem like normal things a monster fighting child might find... these ones seem off as if the children were more frightened of them.

A good example is called Bloody Mary the Prom Queen. Do you want to hear a monster story, Nigel?]

[battlestations]

[yep, this all seems right in his wheelhouse. Prom Queens sound insidious too, so of course he wants to know!]

[whimsicalism]

[Under the picture of a blonde teenage girl in a bloody gown standing alone in an empty school gym there's a deviance in the profile format. There's a paragraph description before the normal qualities, weakness, or wants.

In curly girlish handwriting the following is written:

This was my older sister. She was so nice and kind before she got really sick one day. She was asleep for two whole days and seemed normal for a while. Then this happened. Me and my friends stopped her but I think my real sister must be stuck in Closetland. She would never do something like this. Not ever.]

[battlestations]

Oh great. They're replacing us with evil clones now?

[it'd explain the GKND trailer admittedly

more to read?]

[whimsicalism]

[There sure is! As in the previous monster profiles it goes something like this:

This is murderous shell of a popular girl. Bloody Mary is really scary when she screams: "Am I pretty enough yet?!"

She wants to be the prom queen and make sure that no one can take it away from her.

She can travel through any shiny surface. She knows when you're lying. She can't leave the high school anymore.

There's a small paragraph next to it, though.

We trapped her in a mirror in the high school bathroom... we couldn't stop her from killing some of her classmates. It's not like any other body snatching monster I've seen! I dunno what happened. My sister is seventeen. She shouldn't be affected by monsters and she can't go to Closetland.

Sent in by S. Rosenthal in [the name of the city is blacked out]

There are other weird profiles. Read on?]

Investiga...tion?

[octopups]

[Amdi knows there's probably some neat new area to look at today, but honestly he's a little ashamed that he hasn't talked to Molly in two days. So instead he's up in the hall of mirrors with his utility jackets on and his saddle pouches full of paper clipboards and spare pens and his fancy quill set.]

[He comes up to here mirror and presses a few noses against the glass. Is she up today?]

[whimsicalism]

[She's not at the mirror at first. She's just out of sight. Which might be alarming but her room is rather big and she runs into sight quickly enough, with the notepad in hand.]

snow is going away : )

[octopups]

[Amdi isn't worried, he knows by now that her room is pretty big and there are blind spots. He's still relieved when he sees her though, and is visibly cheerful at the news.]

[He's still setting up his inkwell and quills and stuff, but he walks two spare members up to the mirror to do a quick old-fashioned fog-n-write:]

great! :D

[whimsicalism]

mite be able to get out in a week

[She pauses. Then writes:]

i dont think im in greenfield anymore though

[octopups]

[He's got his usual assembly line set up now, two of him holding down the paper while one writes (backwards, of course) and then another "hands" the paper off to the member directly in front of the mirror.]

does the view out the window look different?

[whimsicalism]

yeah i cant see far but i think it is

i see a brokn house

[octopups]

[Amdi perks several heads. He usually just tries to chat idly with Molly and cheer her up, but this is new and different. Maybe he can help her somehow? Figure out where she is?]

what does the broken house look like? is it like any house you saw in greenfield?

[whimsicalism]

its different maybe several hills away from my house?

its stone and looks like it couldve been a castle

[octopups]

[Okay that definitely gets his attention. Most of him descend upon a fresh sheet of paper while one of him pops off a quick fog note:]

1 minute

[It's actually more like two minutes before he holds up his work: a drawing of Alice's castle as seen from the 1st floor garden. He spent several hours looking at it back in his big surveying effort in week two, and his spatial memory is excellent, so it's a very good drawing.]

[He holds up another note below it, this one with writing:]

did it look like this?

[whimsicalism]

[It takes a long time for Molly to respond.]

its very far away but it kind of looks like that!

[octopups]

[That sends him into a bout of pacing around and through himself. Should he tell her? Should he get her hopes up?]

[Eventually he makes up his mind, and jots off a note:]

i might know where you are, but if i'm right it could be not safe outside

[He heard from Nigel about the looping effect that happens if you walk through the garden hedge, there's no knowing what there could be outside of Molly's house.]

[whimsicalism]

[It's probably a good thing he can't make out her face. Her posture changes. Her shoulders bunch up.]

oh :(