#ccopen

A library? The rooms in this castle were seriously lame. Ayato couldn’t do anything except stare at the titles, sparing the books the fate of having the pages torn out of them or burned. “Watch this place become a repeat of the Library of Alexandria, flames everywhere, books burned down to nothing. How awesome” He was clearly talking to himself.

Was anything real anymore...? Two more people had died, but it felt like it just flew by for Gabby. She tried to investigate and before she knew it she was in the trial. Could she say anything? Should she say anything? These were her children, she was to guide them. But some of them seemed to resist being guided, while others would eventually have to learn to operate without her guidance.

So she allowed them to continue without her help. Let’s see if they have what it takes to persevere without her. Of course it seems that suspicions are turning on her. She would step in and turn things around if she had to. But her patience for these children, who seemed so intent on going against fortune’s path, was wearing thin.

In the end, the culprit was found at the end. That’s fine at least. Another one she could have saved if they had just listened to her.

After the bodies appeared, and the fire permeated her mind relentlessly, Clara was rendered absolutely useless. She stayed silent throughout the investigation and didn’t even speak a word at trial; choosing to, instead, stare blankly ahead of her, as if she wasn’t there at all.

God, did she wish she wasn’t there. By the time she manages to collect herself, everything has happened so much. She knows, of course, because as much as her mind flooded with those memories, she was still there. She knew... the trial, the execution...

What sort of awful game was this?

She wanted to go home.

Desperate for something to take her mind off of any of the thoughts swirling in her head, Clara took to stumbling through the halls of the castle. At this point, she had it memorized, but... Ah. Honey eyes blink, slowly, at the sight of another person.

“... Hello... I hope I... am not in your way.”

Folke...is so tired.

After the trial he drags himself away, but he can’t get far before he collapses from exhaustion. Dragging that body...those braziers...setting everything up...it was so beyond him, beyond his strength, and only his pure dedication to making good art had pushed him on and on to finish.

He barely make it to the church, the closest area. The carpet on the floor is a godsend - and he huff out a silent, sad laugh at that thought. He collapses onto the worship ground and simply lays there, glasses skewed and eyes closed, and sleeps until beams of sunrise shine on him through the stained glass windows and wake him up.

Then he hears the left open front door creak, as someone pushes it further open.

Tala doesn’t like this motive one bit.

She doesn’t have any family- at least, none she can remember. And the people who did know her, well... Let’s just say she needed them to remember her. 

Considering she had been locked out of her room, Tala sits in the courtyard, flipping through a book she had ever-so-luckily had on her before the event, and a little plush giraffe sitting next to her on the grass. The book appears to be in a foreign language, one that isn’t too easily recognizable. The cover is adorned with alchemical symbols and the pages glimmer with golden ink. It’s actually rather beautiful.

Well, that was a mess. 

Yuki’s side still ached something fierce, but Kae had stopped the bleeding, so it was fine, right? Maybe she still needed to rinse it out... Was there an infirmary here? Doctor’s office? She couldn’t remember. There were at least sinks in the kitchen... Oh, and there was supposed to be some broken glass, too, wasn’t there? She needed to go clean that up before anybody else got hurt.

Except Kae had been stabbed, too, and she needed to check on her, and... Kei had been stabbed, too, but he’d be fine, she guessed. Except Eiji probably wasn’t fine about it, and... Hummmmm...

She was just sort of sitting halfway across the courtyard, unsure if she should continue to the kitchen or try to figure out where the others went. Or if she’d be able to get back up and make it to either location.

Oh, except most of them probably hadn’t had supper yet, had they? Would they be in the mood to cook anything after all that?

Decision made, she started to haul herself back to her feet but found she could not. A sharp pain shot across the bottom of her ribs, and she dropped back down, wheezing.

Ah, was someone coming this way?

Fujiwara wasn’t okay. None of this was necessarily what one would describe as okay. In what felt like the blink of an eye, three of her classmates were dead. Just like that. And that name, that Ayato Shiraki, rang some weird sort of bell and caused fear within her heart. The glitching out was horrifying; what had happened to him was horrifying. The fact that it was so easy to lie about who you were and disguise yourself as someone you weren’t was horrifying. She wondered: who else was under a disguise?

She sat solemnly with a cup of milk tea, stirring beyond necessity, watching it swirl: her own little Charybdis. She cracked a small smile. Odysseus was clever, too, and he was led home by the power of his love for his wife and family. What a stellar story.

Emiko was certainly relieved when they were called to gather. She was worried that something had one wrong with the game, for a moment there. Oh, a bear? Hmm, she doesn’t recall seeing much of him... The game mascot, perhaps? Games had those, right? A small character of sorts to be the “fun face” of the game?

She shakes off her thoughts to tune back in, it would be embarrassing to have to ask him to repeat all of that.

Ah, although...

Is... is this how games usually work?? She doesn’t think she’s ever heard of a game denying the title itself. Or revoke log out privileges??? Did NPC’s usually break the fourth wall like that????

K...kill? Another player, at that????? This hardly seemed like one of those bloody, killy, violent games. She had thought it would be more fantasy inspired. Oh, maybe that’s just the setting. Although, it didn’t really present itself as a game that would-- wait that’s not the important part here.

Possible mis-advertisement aside!! Emiko chews at her lip, hands gripping the hem of her sweater. This didn’t sound like a fun game... She looks down at her hands when she recalls what King Kuma had said about menu access.

She... doesn’t know what to do.

Emiko makes some vague gestures with her hands, even mimicking holding a game controller, but no dice. Phooey. Another few seconds of her waving her hands around each other, before the screen suddenly appears across her left palm.

“AH!”

In her surprise, she jumps back, feeling the small thump of another person. She quickly steps away and whirls around.

“O-oh gosh! I’m sorry about that! I uh-- I was, uhh--”