Dreamland (round 3)

[foundationmods]

[A strange house of some sort sits in the pitch black nothingness that exists around it. For those just now wandering in, they will be drawn to the building, finding it lit up in a way that it should not be. It's as if the whole area- house, yard, fence, and giant sakura tree- all give off their own light, and the newly-arrived are drawn to it like a moth to the flame.

Inside the boundary of the yard, the familiar faces of those who have passed on already will greet them. Depending on who is asked, they might give an accurate explanation. But even if they don't, one thing is clear: you don't want to leave this place. The area outside feels Dangerous, and it is probably best to stay put.

Fortunately, the house is built in an old style, and there are many rooms to explore. One room on the second floor seems locked, but the rest are open to explore as desired. The standard rooms are easy to find: kitchen, a W.C. and a bathroom, a sitting room of some sort, and a couple bedrooms (with plenty of futons for the dead to use). There are also several tatami mat rooms with nothing in them currently, but it seems like there might be some use for those rooms.

Around the house, perches for birds can be found. No birds are on them currently, though.

Sometimes Watanuki can be found in the house, but most of the time the dead will be left to their own devices. The question is, what will they do here?]

Comments

[foundfate]

[An interesting thing to note here: the three remaining bookmarks have shifted slightly. It seems like the cookbook is in a flux as well, and exact details have changed. But the bookmarks themselves remained the same, at least?

Anyway, the first one is a pink bookmark with a cookbook on it. Cookbookception!]

My first customer. Or, well, the first one I'm working for on my own, without Yuuko-san's instructions. 'It's something only you can do', she tells me. Bah! She's probably just being lazy about working again.

But this customer is weird. She takes to our cooking lessons fine, and she picks up on the technical aspects easily. But she won't sample her own cooking. That's a vital part of cooking, you have to know how your food should taste. It's a part of the learning process, a way to see your mistakes and fix them.

This feels wrong, but should I say something about it?

1: Leave it be. It's none of my business what she does, she is only paying for the lessons.
2: Ask about it. Maybe there's a reason why, and if we talk about it, maybe I can understand her better.
3: Insist that she tries it. Feelings aside, it's an important part of the cooking process. I have to fulfill my side of the contract.

[chaoscontrol]

[strange, but not totally unexpected.

Shadow reads the story and the choices carefully, chewing on the end of his pen a bit]

Two is probably the blue answer. [the human answer. But how would a witch answer?

Shadow taps his head with the pen now, clearly having a hard time deciding...]

[oceanicbutterfly]

[Karen hasn't been in the best mood this week. The relatively superficial embarrassment of Vinea using her body and voice to admit to a crush has given way to a deeper frustration with her situation. She's been doing a fairly good job of concealing that, though, even if it involves taking a lot of sudden walks.

One of those takes her out to the tree at, apparently, just the right moment.]

Is that another magic book?

[chaoscontrol]

Eh? Oh. Karen. [Shadow scoots over in case she also wants to sit] Yes... it's a cookbook, but it's also kind of like a diary about Kimi... Watanuki's life, working in this shop. I'm testing a theory, but...

[oceanicbutterfly]

[She takes a few cautious steps toward him, but doesn't sit.]

Be careful with it. It's bad enough that everyone keeps disappearing out there.

[chaoscontrol]

Disappearing? [Shadow frowns down at the book]

[oceanicbutterfly]

Like what keeps happening every Wednesday night. Everyone gets together and does something with that book they found somewhere, and they all disappear and then reappear a few minutes later. Are you really not aware of it at all?

[chaoscontrol]

... You... Haven't seen the story...? [Shadow frowns, closing the cookbook for now, talking mostly to himself] No... Of course you don't, Vinea doesn't go. [he twitches an ear and looks up at Karen] We aren't just disappearing, we're... being taken to see someone's memories. Nirrti's memories, I think.

[oceanicbutterfly]

You've been... of course you have.

[Just because she hasn't accomplished anything useful doesn't mean that isn't a problem unique to her.]

So this one is different, I take it.

[chaoscontrol]

Her story is... about what you would expect. I can tell you about it, if you like.

[Shadow opens up the book again]

It's kind of like that, but I'm not getting pulled into his memories or anything. It's more like a.. choose your own adventure story.

[oceanicbutterfly]

Maybe later.

[After she's had a chance to process the basic concept. With a sigh, she sits.]

And something bad happens if you choose the wrong option?

[She can at least extrapolate that much from her mirror adventure.]

[chaoscontrol]

Alright.

[Shadow gestures to the story]

Well, not really. This book doesn't really... change anything about what happened. I think it's something else. Watanuki told me that normally his magic is blue, like his eye. But lately there's been orange in it, and until now, I haven't been sure of the significance. But I think that the blue is his human side, and the orange is his witch side. So... I think one of these answers is a human answer, one is a witch answer, and one is just wrong.

[oceanicbutterfly]

So then you want to find the human answer?

[Vinea has been paying decreasing amounts of attention to all the meetings this week.]

[chaoscontrol]

No. To test my theory, I want to find the witch answer this time.

[Shadow flips back to another story]

I answered this one with... well, how I figured Watanuki would have. And the bookmark that was here burnt up blue.

[he turns back to the current story, frowning at the choices and tapping with his pen again] But I'm not sure which is which.

[or which is witch, HAHA]

[oceanicbutterfly]

[Karen peers at the page.]

Option number three seems like a good fit for the witches. Following rules without caring about human reasoning.

[chaoscontrol]

[Shadow nods]

I had ruled out the second option -- I think that's the "blue" choice. So let's just see...

[Shadow circles option #3 this time]

[foundfate]

Right, she has to try it. The food you cook is like opening a window to your very soul, and you have to try your own cooking to really understand yourself. It's a hard lesson to learn, but she'll be better for it.

[Following that is a recipe for fried tofu.

Shadow will also get his wish, because the bookmark burns up with orange flames.]

[chaoscontrol]

[!!!]

There! I knew it...

[he looks at Karen and gives her a nod]

Thank you, for helping me.

[oceanicbutterfly]

[Success?!]

You're welcome. I'm just glad I could help.

[chaoscontrol]

[success!!]

Now we have a way to see which way the scales are tipping... [Shadow frowns down at the book, thinking about Sakura's vision] ... though I'm not sure it matters.

[oceanicbutterfly]

Why wouldn't it matter? It's only because he's a witch that he can hold us here, right?

[chaoscontrol]

No. ... yes? I don't know. But based on the visions we've seen... it doesn't really seem to matter if Watanuki wins or loses this game, we're fucked either way.

[oceanicbutterfly]

[swearing in front of the kid!]

Strange. You'd think I would be the one with the fatalistic mindset, considering.

[chaoscontrol]

[he will corrupt EVERY CHILD!!]

I have yet to see a way to escape from the confines of the 'game'. It will go on... one of them will win, and we'll all lose out in the end.

[oceanicbutterfly]

If either player winning is a bad outcome, then it seems fairly obvious what you need to happen. You need the game to end in a draw.