[Room #1]

[dramatispersonae]

You find yourselves in a large, square Japanese-style room. It was likely lovely once, but time and neglect have taken their toll. The screens are crooked and the tatami of the floor has come unwoven in places. The scent of incense hangs in the air, but it does little to mask the pervasive odor of decay. Flickering candles of different heights ring the outskirts of the room, causing your shadows (they are your shadows, certainly?) to dance.

A curtain covers something bulky against one wall. Silk cushions in your team's color have been placed on the floor in front of the curtain, around a makeshift table that looks like it began life as a box of drawers. It's a flat surface, anyway.

The Masked Lady's voice seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, echoing in your ears and down your spine.

"Central to any scary story are two things: an injustice, and a monster created by that injustice, wouldn't you agree? Otherwise it wouldn't be scary. So, children, tell me about your monster, and how she came to be."

Comments

Re: ✿ PART ????

[ahorseforgood]

[shifts restlessly]

Why?

Re: ✿ PART ????

[kegare]

"She is only allowed power once she has become a monster."

Re: ✿ PART ????

[ahorseforgood]

. . . no. That isn't so. She was always the one with the power - don't you see?

Re: ✿ PART ????

[kegare]

"No. You are the ones who do not see.

I gave you options, and you chose the ones on the surface. You did not seek what was beneath. You investigated and revealed nothing.

Who said there were only three dolls?"

Re: ✿ PART ????

[ahorseforgood]

Any number of people are hurt by circumstance. There could be no vengeance until she embraced being a monster, on her own behalf.

You wished us to reveal what you had hidden?

Re: ✿ PART ????

[kegare]

"You have discovered some of my stories. But you have not discovered me."

Re: ✿ PART ????

[ahorseforgood]

[gently]

Can you not choose to peel that last curtain back yourself?

Re: ✿ PART ????

[kegare]

"... myself?"

Re: ✿ PART ????

[ahorseforgood]

[stretches out her nose to the hanging a bit from where she's still laying on the ground...]

Yes. You created this game, the setup, the obvious choices and the hidden curtain. I. . . you are free to reveal yourself -- if you are ready for us to see. I would welcome that more than taking your protections away, when they mean something to you. Stripping them away would feel like an intrusion. But it would be an honor instead, if you decided to show us.