[Looking incredibly frazzled, the hostess takes a compact out of her purse, and presses a button at the back.
The bottom falls out of Sonia's chair, and she's falling through a trap door in the floor, falling until, abruptly, the door snaps shut and she has vanished. The room is silent for a full minute, leading to the obvious conclusion that this was her ignominious end.
And then the projector flickers on. A short film is playing. The picture quality is shaky, and the film skips, and there is no sound but for the accompanying music. However, the film is in color, and its star is none other than Sonia Nevermind.]
The video begins with a plush red theater curtain draped across the screen. It opens to reveal a hand-lettered card, decorated around the edge with watercolor drawings of roses and thorns, like the page from an old storybook:
'Once upon a time, there lived a princess who was the most beautiful in all the land'
The video opens upon Sonia, in a beautiful, enchanted wood, in the shadow of a glimmering fairytale castle. She's dressed in a long, shimmering gold gown. On her feet are delicate glass slippers, and attached to her hands are gossamer strings, attached to some invisible force above. Sonia is dancing prettily, but while her movements are all incredibly graceful, there is something off about them. Careful watching will reveal that in fact, it is her feet that are dancing, her body moving to follow the dancing feet, as her arms bend, sway, and curtesy in response to the movement of the strings. Sonia's own expression is tearful and frightened.
A curtain closes, and another card appears.
'But there were those who were jealous of the princess' great beauty.'
Sonia dances from the meadow, towards the castle, where there is some golden-red object upon a pedestal. Her expression grows somewhat alarmed, and she seems to try to move back towards the meadow, only for her feet to dance away towards the castle. At the entrance to the castle is a lovely white pedestal, upon which there is an apple. The apple looks truly delicious, ripe and as brightly colored and enticing as an apple could ever be.
Guided by the gossamer strings, Sonia's hands lift the apple to her mouth. Tears are rolling down her cheeks, but she takes a bite from the apple. After biting it, she immediately faints, crumpling to the ground. The apple rolls from her hand, the silver glint of a syringe needle embedded within it visible from the bite.
The curtain falls.
'The Princess fell under a spell of eternal sleep, never to be lifted until true love's kiss ended the curse.'
Now, Sonia is seen lying in a gilded coffin, inside a bed of fresh, colorful flowers, inside the castle. She holds a bouquet of pale lilies to her chest and is dressed in a pure white gown. Her eyes are wide open, her face frozen in an expression of terror with tears dried on her cheeks. It gradually becomes clear that she is not dead; her eyes seem to see her surroundings, her eyelids blink on occasion, her chest rises and falls, but no other part of her is able to move.
Surrounding the coffin, people come and go, dropping flowers to the ground or into her coffin. Every one of them weeps bitterly, some inconsolable, some falling to the ground. Occasionally, Sonia seems to look to one of them, but in turn they all turn away and leave her behind.
The curtain falls once again.
'So that no one would ever forget her beauty, the Princess was placed in a glass coffin.'
Sonia is shown again lying in the coffin, now a lid of glass lying over her, preserving her and the flowers she lies on. Her tears have been wiped away. Her chest still rises and falls and her eyes are still open, but now they stare straight ahead, above her, almost staring into whatever 'camera' is filming the story.
At first, her coffin continues to be surrounded by mourners, but gradually they appear less frequently. The image shows time passing, as fewer and fewer come to visit her. The castle where her coffin lies becomes dusty; cobwebs grow in the corner, weeds shoot up through the cracks in the stone floors, thorny vines and bramble begin to grow along the castle walls. The flowers left on the floor beneath her wither and die and turn to dust. Only Sonia and the bed of flowers inside her coffin remain untouched by time.
At some point, around her, there seems to be a war happening. The throne room is filled with soldiers, fighting with guns and grenades, creating trenches to fighting one another there surrounding Sonia's coffin. Many men fall and die in the bloody combat, until finally, the walls collapse as tanks roll in. The walls of the castle are rocked by artillery, brought down, the stone itself scorched and seared and drenched with blood. Only the coffin is untouched. Finally, there is a bright, blinding flash of light, and the curtain falls.
'The Princess slept for a thousand years, as the kingdom around her turned to dust.'
Sonia continues to lie in her coffin, but now the castle lies in ruins, abandoned. Thick bramble with sharp thorns has overtaken it entirely, surrounding Sonia in a dense thicket. Even the coffin itself has begun to rust, the gilded hinges showing signs of age, a thick layer of dust collected on the glass surface through which Sonia is still visible, but clouded from vision. Remains of burnt skeletons and ash lie on the floor around her.
'But in the end, no one ever came.'
The film now shows the castle from far away, a ruined and wasted land. Though forest has grown back around the castle, it seems that any people who have ever lived here have been gone for a long time, and most of the land is no longer suitable for growth.
Finally, as time passes, the lid of the coffin rusts and falls to the ground, shattering. Sonia awakes from the coffin. She's weak and trembling but she tries to climb from there. However, as she breathes in the air around her, she clutches her chest. Her bed of flowers begins to rapidly wither and decay. Sonia gasps for breath, choking, unable to breathe the air, as she too withers and fades away to dust.
'The End'
[Light from the projector dances against the wall before. The video ends. The Hostess pushes a button on her compact and the screen rolls back up into the wall. Without another word, the Hostess stands and walks out the smoking room doors.
The drawing room doors are now unlocked. You are free to go.]
[He'll snatch the key and keep running towards the library. Hopefully the other two are following him.]
The trapdoor, the door in the billards room, and the door here. There's three ways to get into the smoking room and three of us. We each take as many keys as we can and try a different entrance.
I don't know how long it'll take, but we don't have any other options I can see here. If we can get to him fast enough, we might just have a chance.
...Yuzu died before a night had passed. I think we need to focus on the trapdoor; it's the one that seems most likely to open.
[In spite of this chaos, or perhaps because of it, Susan speaks calmly without any sense of panic.]
The person who takes the trapdoor should take more; the other two can take the ones already used. We'll need small containers to keep them to make sure we separate the ones we've already used from the ones we've yet to try.
Or we can tip the used ones in paint. [She doesn't let up until they're at the library, but she keeps talking to the two all the same.] Stiles, do you want to handle the trapdoor?
I've got pockets, I'll be able to take more. I'll drop by the kitchen on the way to grab cups, it's on the way. If one of us manages to get in, knock on the other two entrances so we're not stuck trying keys all night.
Annie and I will try the other two doors, then. Annie - the billiards room door opens into a bookcase. Lithuania and I moved that, so it should be as accessible as it can.
I'll go back to the drawing room since I made a promise to Gundam about something, but the two of us can swap keys very easily. We'll come bother you in the secret passage if we run out.
...It's accessible from the wine cellar. [In case Annie didn't know.]
[She yells as he runs out. Between Sonia dying, Gundam acting like a moron and everything else? She is officially more done with this bullshit than ever before.]
[If this situation wasn't sad enough, the four hamsters are all sitting around the smoking room door, even Jum-P, who has usually been asleep. Sun-D, the smallest, is struggling to see if she can squeeze in, but with no luck at all. The others are scratching and nibbling at the door.]
[ What in the world is going on — this is the weirdest, but also most interesting performance that's happened here yet. Does she go check on Lithium? Does she just get blackout drunk and go to bed? She watches Gundam get pulled into the smoking room, Sonia's execution, and Stiles, Annie, and Susan running out of the room.
Rapture looks around incredulously, before her eyes fall to the hamsters at the door. She speaks to them directly. It's that outlandish right now. ] I don't think that's going to work, you guys.
[Susan will poke her head back in very briefly to call - ]
I promised Gundam I'd take care of the hamsters if anything happened to him. ...I was going to foist them on Sonia, but -- please keep an eye on them for a bit! We'll be back soon.
[ Susan's already gone though, so there's nothing and no one to argue against. She just looks down at the hamsters, furrows her eyebrows, and shakes her head. ]
[ She doesn't go after them though, seeing as she knows nothing of hamsters, their habits, or if Gundam's trained them to do circus tricks as entertainment. She just stands in her spot, crosses her arms, and shrugs. ]
[Lithuania is left more than a little stunned by everything that just took place. He doesn't see what he can do to help Gundam, considering the three people with apparently hundreds of keys are taking care of that.
He finds himself next to Poland's body, though it's covered with a cloak. Slowly, he slides down to sit next to it.
[ Well, this is strange, but stranger things have happened and tonight has proven as such. Rapture seems to be back to normal now though. As normal as she can be. ]
I have to go and see Lithium. Would it be alright to bring your dog with me? You know... just in case.
[ She gives him a little wave. It is amazing how fast someone as lazy as her can kick into high gear when she needs to, because she is now sprinting out of the room with Ruta following right behind her. ]
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murdermanor2013-11-14 10:03 am
EXECUTION
[Looking incredibly frazzled, the hostess takes a compact out of her purse, and presses a button at the back.
The bottom falls out of Sonia's chair, and she's falling through a trap door in the floor, falling until, abruptly, the door snaps shut and she has vanished. The room is silent for a full minute, leading to the obvious conclusion that this was her ignominious end.
And then the projector flickers on. A short film is playing. The picture quality is shaky, and the film skips, and there is no sound but for the accompanying music. However, the film is in color, and its star is none other than Sonia Nevermind.]
[Light from the projector dances against the wall before. The video ends. The Hostess pushes a button on her compact and the screen rolls back up into the wall. Without another word, the Hostess stands and walks out the smoking room doors.
The drawing room doors are now unlocked. You are free to go.]
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Susan, Annie - the keys! Tell me one of you has it on you!
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Lithuania and i found the trapdoor in the smoking room earlier! It's locked from that passageway - you said there were hundreds of keys, didn't you?
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The trapdoor, the door in the billards room, and the door here. There's three ways to get into the smoking room and three of us. We each take as many keys as we can and try a different entrance.
I don't know how long it'll take, but we don't have any other options I can see here. If we can get to him fast enough, we might just have a chance.
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[In spite of this chaos, or perhaps because of it, Susan speaks calmly without any sense of panic.]
The person who takes the trapdoor should take more; the other two can take the ones already used. We'll need small containers to keep them to make sure we separate the ones we've already used from the ones we've yet to try.
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I've got pockets, I'll be able to take more. I'll drop by the kitchen on the way to grab cups, it's on the way. If one of us manages to get in, knock on the other two entrances so we're not stuck trying keys all night.
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I'll go back to the drawing room since I made a promise to Gundam about something, but the two of us can swap keys very easily. We'll come bother you in the secret passage if we run out.
...It's accessible from the wine cellar. [In case Annie didn't know.]
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Right. I'll... I'll have to wait outside the cellar. [Without explaining, she dashes to the billiard room.]
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[She yells as he runs out. Between Sonia dying, Gundam acting like a moron and everything else? She is officially more done with this bullshit than ever before.]
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Rapture looks around incredulously, before her eyes fall to the hamsters at the door. She speaks to them directly. It's that outlandish right now. ] I don't think that's going to work, you guys.
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I promised Gundam I'd take care of the hamsters if anything happened to him. ...I was going to foist them on Sonia, but -- please keep an eye on them for a bit! We'll be back soon.
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[ Susan's already gone though, so there's nothing and no one to argue against. She just looks down at the hamsters, furrows her eyebrows, and shakes her head. ]
If you say so...
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And then they scamper away, too quickly to be stopped, and out the door.]
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[ She doesn't go after them though, seeing as she knows nothing of hamsters, their habits, or if Gundam's trained them to do circus tricks as entertainment. She just stands in her spot, crosses her arms, and shrugs. ]
Not my worry anymore.
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...Where are the hamsters?!
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[ She says it so calmly. Rapture should never be trusted with animals. ]
What are all those keys?
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He finds himself next to Poland's body, though it's covered with a cloak. Slowly, he slides down to sit next to it.
He's not sure what else to do.]
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[ Well, this is strange, but stranger things have happened and tonight has proven as such. Rapture seems to be back to normal now though. As normal as she can be. ]
I have to go and see Lithium. Would it be alright to bring your dog with me? You know... just in case.
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Just have her back inside before it gets too late, please.
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[ She gives him a little wave. It is amazing how fast someone as lazy as her can kick into high gear when she needs to, because she is now sprinting out of the room with Ruta following right behind her. ]