FINAL INVESTIGATION

[whimsicalism]

No one is dead today. Why would they when the end is so close? You can practically taste it (or is that your stomach?) as the final Friday dawns. It's time to get some answers.

The Storyteller isn't talking to anyone but it's a good guess to see where she went. There's one final door that hasn't been checked, after all.

Comments

Mingle/Cross-Team Talk

[whimsicalism]

[If you want to talk with the other teams while investigating, reply here.]

cw: murder, assisted suicide

[xxxx_me]

[It's with a heavy heart that he radios the others.]

...

This is Allen. We found Alice. ...The real, original Alice. She's... she's in a lot of pain.

...

She asked me to kill her to end the game. But she wants to apologize to everyone first, so I'm going to let her do that.

cw: murder, assisted suicide

[whimsicalism]

[Her response is quiet.]

I'm - sorry - I - couldn't - stop - this - before - I - want - help - you - don't - need - to - forgive - me

[Does she want to cry? She does. A lot.] I'm - so - sorry - sorry - especially - Dream

Re: cw: murder, assisted suicide

[imozon]

What--

[She fumbles for her radio.]

Alice? Alice?!

Re: cw: murder, assisted suicide

[whimsicalism]

[...]

Yeah - its - me

Re: cw: murder, assisted suicide

[imozon]

You're alive... you're real and you're alive...

[ballooncaged]

[Away from the speaker, to dark dream]

What's even going on there? Was the queen in the castle a storyteller illusion or something?

[octopups]

Alice?? Alice!!

[Every one of Amdi, all over the areas, perks up their ears and looks around frantically.]

Where are you?? I'll come to you!

[Before even waiting for an answer, all of him; the two of him with Nigel, the one with Gavroche, the one still out in the ruins and the four in the library; all of them take off running out of their areas and toward the castle, where he knows Allen and Gil went.]

[whimsicalism]

[It doesn't take long to figure out where Gil and Allen went in the castle. The workshop is still open and the elevator ready to be recalled. Are you ready, Amdi?]

[octopups]

[Considering that after overhearing Alice's initial transmission on Nigel's radio, Amdi ran off before remembering to turn on his own (non-mindsound) radio and thus missed the entire ensuing discourse and is going into this totally blind?

Amdi thinks he is ready. Amdi is not ready. Amdi gets in the elevator.]

[whimsicalism]

[There's a startled response from Alice's radio when he arrives.]

Who - did - someone - else - show - up

[battlestations]

[Well, this is HIGHLY UPSETTING. Nigel grips his radio, trying to think.

Neku and Oriko tried to kill her and he thought they were wrong. Nagisa advocated to kill her and he was also wrong. Nigel couldn't think of anything else, but he'd forgotten so much by then.

It just feels like things are repeating, over and over and over. Maybe this finally will break the cycle for good. But... the way it's settled on him, it still seems wrong.

It's the coward's way out. And what is the enemy, according to the Apple Court, who know the most of this world?]

If we do it like this.... we won't defeat our fear. It will doom us.

[xxxx_me]

...Fear...?

[battlestations]

We already know Alice doesn't want to die. She's doing this because she's scared for us... scared of the Storyteller. If we kill her now, for that reason... doesn't just that prove we're afraid of the Storyteller?

[ballooncaged]

I completely agree! What matters is what we believe!

[Mizuki reads the fragment out loud.]

[battlestations]

Mizuki! Is this the rest of the book?!

[xxxx_me]

...Maybe. But...

I'm less afraid of the Storyteller and more... [He trails off, digging into those memories he's still managed to hold onto.]

...There was a girl who was trapped in the Dream. She only had teeny tiny pieces of her soul left, but she couldn't move on. She wanted to fly with the other souls, to be reborn, but she was too weighed down by the living who couldn't let her go.

I don't want Alice to be like that. She needs to be allowed to move on.

[battlestations]

I don't think Alice is incomplete. She's just... really, really sick.

[After listening to Mizuki, though, he's got a new determination.]

We still need her.

[whimsicalism]

I'm - scared - what - else - can - I - do - like - this?

[She doesn't want to die. She doesn't.]

I - want - to - believe

[battlestations]

Did you hear what Mizuki said? Believing is what you can do! That's how this works.

[whimsicalism]

[She's silent then:]

Even - if - I'm - a - bad - girl?

[xxxx_me]

[...]

[golden_king]

[ At some point, his voice comes in because they have radios and all that. ]

Well, I don't really have too much of a preference in how we handle this. I mean, on one hand, she's obviously already on death's door, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a quicker way for her to die.

[ But what did he know? ]

Though, things do change if 'killing her ends the game'. If, of course, it also happens to get us everything we want too.

[battlestations]

I thought we established that Nursery Rhyme is being sustained by Closetland instead of her master. Killing Alice now could break her spirit, but it wouldn't actually remove her... would it? How do we know she won't just try to drag us all down with her? It's already happened that way before.

[golden_king]

Maybe she would. Or maybe she'd try to drag us down anyway.

[ But he'll shrug. He didn't seem too invested in making a point here. ]

Though like I said, I don't really care how we handle 'her'...for the moment. If everyone wants to keep her around, I'm not going to argue against it. I'm just being helpful by providing arguments for either option we have because I'm feeling generous.

[ He'll smile slightly though, as if amused. ]

I'm sure that dumb Servant is going to have enough of a good reaction just seeing us with her as it is, anyway.