CHAPTER 2 ; MINGLE

[themodsgrimm]

The Story Continues... CHAPTER 233 Narrators Remain ; There’s nothing to shake up the feeling of helplessness and betrayal quite like some renovations. Residents in the castle will find a gentle rumble stirring them out of their sleep on Monday morning, and if they choose to find the source of the noise, they’ll notice a newly constructed staircase on the second floor. It stretches up, up, up and will guide the Narrators to a third floor with all types of new installments to the castle. Go ahead, crack open a book, try your hand at some potion mixing. What could possibly go wrong? Just as last week, the morning that the dining hall opens, the tapestries of Ann Takamaki, Soo-won, and Dave Strider will all suddenly catch flame from the bottom, burning up and up until the entire tapestry is gone. Anyone who ventures outside will also find that the scenery has warmed up considerably. Snow no longer dusts the ground, but rather the warm sun and pleasant chirping of birds greet you to the castle grounds. The area has also been expanded, a new jousting grounds available for play and recreation. A set of stables stands next to the grounds, but anyone who ventures inside will find only hear the occasional, phantom whinny of a horse and – find some rather large feathers? Interesting. Finally, partners will find themselves unable to rest peacefully yet another week. While no paranoia creeps over anyone’s shoulders, when night falls and they find themselves sleeping, they’ll instead see dreams – or rather, some memories of their partner. Apparently the Crafters would rather that you all get to know each other sooner, rather than later. Hopefully you don’t see anything you’re not meant to. Welcome to Week 2, everyone! Today we've introduce new castle locations and brought a new round of partner effects, so please review those, including the Outside section on the Locations page. If you'd like to have your characters interact with the laboratory, please feel free to PP the mods! We would also like to remind players to submit all of their Prologue PCs and new PCs at the Private Conversations page and review the weekly ooc notes for important details in the castle. Something exciting will be arriving on Wednesday, June 20th so keep your eyes peeled for that as well. full navigation. locations taken (statuses) stories (profiles) info & faq wishing well private conversations

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[function]

[ a: library, any day ]

[ she might not be an information model, but 2b is still entranced by books from the old world, as she knows it. catch her sitting at a table with a huge stack of fairy tale books, poring over them as if one of them holds a clue to explaining what the narrators' purpose here is... or just because she's intrigued by the tales humans used to write.

if you catch her monday afternoon, though, instead of going through the tomes (though pod is diligently continuing to scan through them in her stead), she'll be up at the leather-bound book. she reads the passage to herself both mentally and aloud a couple of times, once again trying to find a hint in the printed words. ]

I wonder... who are the Beauty and the Beast?

[ b: bathhouse, tuesday evening ]

[ given her disdain and/or confusion for most human customs, one might be surprised to find 2b in the bathhouse. that also means, of course, removing all articles of clothing... including that weird blindfold she's always wearing. it's sitting on top of the folded-up towel off to the side, while 2b herself is sitting with her back against the wall at the edge of the pool. even so, a hint of mystery still remains—her eyes are closed as she takes the time to relax. ]

"It still feels good," huh... [ a brief silence follows. then, she lifts her head up, looking up to the ceiling and finally opening her stark gray eyes. ] It sure does.

[ how enigmatic. for the record, she has no detailed primary or secondary sexual characteristics, but she and pod (who has its own folded hand towel on it) will definitely get ready to throw hands if any funny business rears its head. ]

[ c: wildcard ]

[ anything else, rainfell, etc.!! y'all know the drill ]

a, monday!

[londonstar]

[ waver himself is also entranced by all the books around. when 2b is there, he is as well, sitting on a chair and quietly reading a book. however, when she speaks up, his eyes raise from the book and onto her. ]

The Beauty and the Beast is a french fairy tale written in the 18th century. However, some say that the story originated around four thousand years ago.

To put it simply, the tale is about the daughter of a a poor merchant, named Belle. She is well-read, beautiful, and kind, but mistreated by all her other siblings. When her father asks if she wishes for a present from his travels, all she asks for is a rose. And while lost in a storm, Belle's father manages to find a beautiful palace, which he sleeps for the night and the day after, he found a beautiful rosebush from which he tries to pick a flower from.

[ focused on his lecture, he decides to put the book aside, and continue ]

It is then when the Beast appears, threatening to kill the merchant for having taken something so precious after accepting his hospitality. The merchant manages to convince the Beast to allow him to take the rose, but with a price-- either the merchant or one of his daughters must come back to the palace.

Learning of this, Belle makes the decision that she will go to the castle. The Beast treats her kindly, feeds her well, and dresses her in lavish clothes...and asks her to marry her every evening. And every evening, he's refused, because she only sees him as a friend.

[ when he's about to continue, waver stops for a moment. then he huffs, amused. ]

The rest of it...I believe you should read for yourself, Miss. I'm sure the fairy tale will be around here somewhere.

[function]

[ ... sure, she asked the question, but she isn't exactly expecting the long-winded explanation that waver gives her. but she does listen to all of it attentively, and though her response seems to have a bit of bite to it— ]

I don't know about that. I feel like you did a pretty good job of telling me the basics.

[ —it's enough to have piqued her interest. note to self: definitely a talker when he's not smoking. ]

I meant in the context of this book. [ she gestures to the one on the pedestal. ] ... Though, I guess knowing the original story might help us figure that out.

a, monday!

[sanguinairy]

[While she's at the table with her stacks of fairytales, Souji will mosey on over with a few books in hand, too. It's probably a bunch of weird how-to books, like "How to cook eggs 100 different ways" or "How to read palms and astral project".

He'll look curiously at her pile, though!]

Have you found anything decent to read?

[function]

[ honestly those are the kinds of books i should be reading irl.

when he approaches her, she's in the middle of the little mermaid. perhaps she was drawn to it after ann's execution. she looks up at him when he asks, though, and simply nods. ]

Most things in here are interesting to me. Like humanity themselves, the books written by them were hard to come by where I'm from. [ she pauses, turning back to the book flat on the table. ] I didn't realize how... morbid some of these are.

[sanguinairy]

[same tbh

But he takes note of the cover and also probably quietly decides to read it himself later. For now, though, 2b is where his focus is.]

Ah... You know, I was a little surprised by that, too. I suppose the way things have gone here so far do seem to align at least a little with the kind of "endings" that these tales have, though.

[IE most people are miserable and at least one is dead.]

[function]

Are these stories and their real world counterparts supposed to be teaching us some kind of lesson?

[ she sounds extremely dubious as she suggests that, but... she can't really come up with anything else. she doesn't need to be a scanner model to understand the allegorical nature of all these tales. ]

[sanguinairy]

[He considers that for a second, but eventually ends up giving a light shrug.]

They do remind me a little of some of the stories from my home. Mothers who don't want their children playing near dangerous quarries will tell them stories of kapa, who like to come out of the water to brain anyone too close or hold them below the river until they drown.

[Maybe...... humans are just Violent.]

[function]

What that tells me is that humanity was too scared to face the truth. They couldn't accept that they were a danger to each other, so they created these stories to deal with it...

Am I off the mark?

[sanguinairy]

[Leave it to her to call all of them out!! But Souji just laughs.]

That probably has something to do with it. We're not very good at facing things we don't like.

[function]

[ what can she say, tact is a lost art among robots. ]

Like violence and death.

[sanguinairy]

Like violence and death.

[Parrots back one of the people here who is probably Least Concerned about both violence and death.]

We don't tend to like admitting that we've created our own problems, either. It's easier to blame it on something fantastical.

[function]

[ he might be surprised how much she cares, actually, but that would also mean she'd have to admit she has feelings. rip. ]

Well, that doesn't seem like a helpful defense mechanism at all.

[ it does silence her for a while, though, despite the sarcastic quip. it seems like it's something she's thinking very seriously about. ]

[sanguinairy]

[SOUJI IS ONE OF THE ONES LEAST CONCERNED WITH VIOLENCE AND DEATH though it's true, he'd be surprised that 2b cares just because she is so very Stoic. Robots, man.]

Not really, no. It only lets us push our problems away until we can't keep ignoring them, probably.

[Probably.]