Mesdames et Messieurs, Voilà, C'est Vous

[lesmodsalouette]

Bievenue

You're wrapped in a soothing, all-encompassing darkness.

Well, perhaps not perfectly all-encompassing -- you can see some slivers of light here and there, just enough to realize that your current space is literally wrapped in something, and that you are a highly customized burrito at the mercy of an entirely too fluffy bed and set of blankets. Moreover: you are definitely not alone.

Depending upon the contents of your bed (two of you, waking up dressed exactly in what you wore last you remember back where each of you came from, in the exact same state as those last moments no matter how illogical or disjointed), it may not be comfortable or feasible to stay cocooned up for much longer. There's a low, muted GONG, GONGG coming from not far away, your bed creaks like a beleaguered ship in an unannounced storm, and it is joined by even more noises of movement beyond the bed canopy as you try to take stock of where you are.

Eventually, you either fall out of bed or drag yourself into this world: your new and strangely crowded personal rooms, the clock insistently sounding out the hour, and the halls and heraldry of the venerable Château Ambregris -- a lavishly decorated and fully furnished version of a more-or-less authentic French castle (assuming you know what France or a castle are).

Left to your own devices for the moment, you may find it helpful to explore the castle for your own purposes, check out the suspicious statues and personalized plaques in the Promenade of Reflexion, or perhaps to try to get to the bottom of the mysterious and frankly alarming amount of bread piled up in front of the place settings in the Banquet Hall. (Were you thinking of escaping? Any attempts to leave the property will be met with no forward progress at all, treadmill style). There's just about every kind of loaf, roll, boule, baguette, croissant or even animal-shaped bread you can think of stacked in baskets. There's absolutely nothing else save for plain bread, but at least you won't starve.

[OOC: Welcome to Château Ambregris, a perfectly normal castle receiving perfectly normal guests. Feel free to ask any questions in discord! The NPC Meet & Greet will be later today, March 8 at 6 PM EST/3 PM PST.]

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Comments

[dumbface]

[ wow?? except, clover is totally valid and he's the dubious one here. maybe running up to strangers as a stranger with a human skull in your hands is a bad idea?

.........nah, couldn't be. anyway he points obliviously back to a box full of various skulls... some of which he probably broke a little, but it's fine. the narwhal skull is still mostly intact! ]

Over there?

[fourtuity]

[ Well okay, that's what she asked all right. Her hands are over her mouth to keep herself from losing her shit again. ]

...They're not real, right?

[ It's totally a fake prop that looks a tad too realistic, right? Right? ]

[dumbface]

...Probably?

[ like... sure it feels real, but how is he supposed to know what a real skull feels like?? he turns it around in his hands a couple of times, then swings it straight up and straight down as if that's going to do something.

obviously, it doesn't. ]

[fourtuity]

...I hope this doesn't curse us or something.

[ Squinting at the skull. Dude, she appreciates your efforts, but also why. ]

[dumbface]

...it can do that?

[ come to think of it... that sounds right? disturbing the dead is generally not very nice.

though his expression doesn't change at all, he starts holding the skull further away... and further... and then just... gently puts it on the ground and gives it a pat. ]

What should we do? I don't know how to break a curse.

[fourtuity]

I dunno. But it's not like we're being mean to it, so maybe it's fine. No reason for a grudge towards us.

[ Now that the shock has worn off...she kinda wants to poke it. But probably better to let sleeping skulls lie. ]

[dumbface]

[ nodnod! ]

Ah, you're really wise. You must know a lot about skulls.

[ somehow, that's his takeaway. he gives the skull another friendly pat. ]

Mr. Skull, look. Isn't this much better than being cooped up in a box? You'll like it out here, so please don't curse us.

[fourtuity]

I wouldn't say that...

[ ...Okay, that actually does make her feel bad for all the skulls? Great, new impulse unlocked. ]

Yeah, we can be chill together. I'll go get...his friends so they can all be out in the open. Let's just make sure they can't be stepped on.

[dumbface]

[ no one would've expected to spend their day like this... freeing skulls from the oppressive confines of a tyrannical box. but here these two are. clover really gets him with that "friend" thing too. ]

You think someone would step on them?

[ well... possible??? hm. hmmmm.

oh! ]

I saw chairs. [ without fully expanding on that thought, he jogs back over to the box and lifts it up. it's pretty heavy because, you know, some of these skulls are heavy (thankfully no tusk on that narwhal, sry it wouldn't fit in a box), but hey!! he's not complaining!!

pls excuse him as he just casually carries the box over to the chairs. this is gonna be one morbid looking theater in a couple of minutes! ]

[fourtuity]

[ Hey, she can be nice and understanding! Sometimes! ]

Yeah, that sounds better. People shouldn't be sitting on stuff without checking what's on there first. Let's see, which should go where...

[ Time to start moving skulls around!

Somehow he has made her feel enough pity that she's willing to touch what could be actual skulls. Amazing. He deserves an award. ]

[dumbface]

[ pls, clover deserves a reward for touching the skulls... look at her go! if it were up to him he'd probably dump the box out on one chair.

anyway, he just kind of grabs a random skull and follows clover. ]

Do they have to go in an order?

[fourtuity]

I don't think so. Did you have an order in mind?

[ Honestly, she can't really tell most of these skulls apart, so she was going with random by default. ]

[dumbface]

Not really.

[ his head starts tilting owlishly..... she asked, so?? so ]

Eater and eaten?

[fourtuity]

[ Oh god...oh god she's been dragged into a puzzle. ]

Uhh...we could, but not gonna lie, I can't tell the difference between, um, eater and eaten. Can you?

[dumbface]

[ help, i'm so sorry clover ]

Uh. [ scrunching his face as he looks between the skull in his hands and the one in clovers. like??? ??? ?? ? ]

Cows eat grass?

[ yeah he's useless ]

[fourtuity]

I'm...not sure if you want to categorize that under eater or eaten.

[ Hold up, let her think for a second. ]

Okay, I think I got it! What about by size? That should be easier to tell!

[dumbface]

[ oh!! she's brilliant!! his face lights up in a totally unobvious way because he only makes like 2 expressions tops ]

Let's do that.

[fourtuity]

Hehe, size it is.

[ That's a much easier puzzle, so she'll take it. Yay for lowering the difficulty. ]

Now that we've decided, let's get cracking! ...Except without the actual cracking part.

[ Something tells her she needs to be more careful with her slang around this guy. ]

[dumbface]

[ she is absolutely right, he is a very literal man. ]

Right. No cracking, because then they'll curse us.

[ he gets it... probably. anyway he takes it on himself to grab two of the heaviest-looking skulls and pads off to the left... only to set them down kinda randomly and come back and go for the heavy ones again. ]

[fourtuity]

[ Sure, Clover will leave the heavier ones for him. She doesn't want to risk dropping something by accident. But she'll try her best to shuffle things around so they don't have to spend a million years doing all the rearrangement at once. ]

Okay, this is totally doable. It feels like it's getting easier to tell apart the size when they're in front of us like this.