(open) you're looking at me like you don't know who i am

[entreats]

Who: Ange, Ruby, Break, and anyone who knows any of them.
What: Corruption turned Ange into a true Umineko witch who decided the best way to keep the people she loves safe from this town is to drag them into a pocket dimension.
When: For a while in March.
Where: Ange and Ruby's house-turned-small-pocket-dimension.

Content Warnings: Potential violence if anyone acts particularly antagonistic. Potential talk of violence or gore. Other warnings will be added when things pop up.



Perhaps you have seen Ruby's odd network post and decided to check things out. Or maybe you're just wandering around Trench and notice that Ange and Ruby's house suddenly looks.. different.

The house has been completely overgrown by way oversized roses, big thorns growing out of all the stems, completely obscuring the structure that's supposed to be underneath it. If you get close enough to the cluster of roses, you may feel your connection to any of the three people inside suddenly pull you in. (Please note: only people who know either Ange, Ruby or Break will be able to enter the pocket dimension because of this!)

If you give in to the sensation, everything around you might go black, and when the light returns, you seem to find yourself in.. a hedge maze. A rather odd one, though. As you stumble through it, you may suddenly find yourself in random rooms, and then back out of them into the hedge maze once more. The Moss King's wild plants seem to have even invaded corners of this place, so you might want to watch out you avoid having those snap at you. Retracing your steps through the labyrinth feels impossible, like the way is changing up behind you with every step. Some rooms make perfect sense - like a neat and elaborate kitchen, or a library - and others seem to consist of nonsense with stairs leading upside down or to nowhere, or gravity not working in a specific room at all.

Flying throughout the entire maze are golden butterflies. They seem to fly with direction, and if you follow them, you might find them leading you to one of the people you were looking for..

Comments

[payingfordeliverance]

Ah! Excellent.

[Break and Ruby are both utterly devoted to the Golden Witch, and that means helping one another, too. Break had already been fond of Ruby, independently of both Ange and Qrow. Since that's the case he'd be looking out for her regardless, even corrupted. But here, supporting her can only benefit Ange, too. Everyone wins in their weird little family.

Baltus trots over to greet her, and politely does not knock her over. Break spins a little and shakes the hat he's holding over the table. A pile of bullets he's collected while scrounging around fall out, bouncing as they hit. He will trade these for the roses.]

I've an idea or three, but nothing that satisfies me as of yet. Since she can conjure whatever she likes, we'll have to come up with something she'll not know she likes until we've made it, I suspect.

[onekindsoul]

[On a normal day. Ruby would be more concerned about anyone outside of Ange, but... There was a certain sense of Ruby that was lacking. It had to do with her aura being drained throughout the month- Her actual soul being pulled out of body. Ange had managed to prevent it from getting any worse, but a lot of what made her state of being was Ange's power. She was utterly devoted to Ange as her furniture first and foremost.

It's why her hand only lightly grazes across Baltus in return for his greeting before she lightly dusts herself off. She'll take the bullets and gently place them in her blazer's pocket, though it's a wonder how they all fit in there.]

That could be the trick.

Perhaps we'll have to find something that she likes but does not often think of.

[payingfordeliverance]

Mm. Something she had and lost, or forgot she wanted...something like that.

[Which is troublesome, from where Break is standing. He knows how Ange feels and thinks about many things, but he's realized recently that his knowledge of facts about her is sorely lacking. Specifics of her past. Her abilities.

He is still kind of mad about the dramatic reveal of her ability to summon a sniper tower out of the ground. Next they'll be telling him those floating stakes are secretly her harem of lesbian demons or some shit.]

You know her even better than I. What has she buried, that we could restore?

[onekindsoul]

Precisely.

[Ruby taps her chin in thought. While... She wasn't exactly all that at the moment, she did still consider herself one of the leading experts on all things Ange. She touches off the ground and gently does a little circle around the table as she sifts through her memories.

Then one pops into her mind. Of Ange reading stories in the library.]

There was a doll. Of a lion who precious to her.

Sakutaro.

[payingfordeliverance]

Oho.

[Break rubs his own chin, considering.]

To attempt to duplicate such a thing exactly might be too cruel...precious things are so often irreplaceable. It wouldn't do for furniture such as ourselves to overstep our bounds. But, perhaps a doll of some sort who might be a friend to Sakutaro, to keep her company while we are looking after things...?

[onekindsoul]

[The strangest part would probably be that Ruby doesn't realize just how cruel making a replacement Sakutaro could be. She just stares a little blankly as Break gives the reasoning for the change, eventually nodding in agreement.]

Fair enough. We wont do Sakutaro then.

What if we did a mouse then? I remember reading a story of a mouse that once helped a lion. From what I know of Sakutaro- He could probably use help in his adventures.

Do you think Ange would find a mouse comforting?

[payingfordeliverance]

A tiny mouse to guide a big, brave lion sounds positively lovely.

[It's Break's possessive nature that lets him see the danger in the notion. He's always been firm that no one can ever take the place of anyone else, and that's especially potent with Ange, who has slid so easily into the empty space at his side that Sharon Rainsworth ought to be occupying. And, because Break is Break, this also counts for dolls. After all, he spent most of the past seventeen years with a very important little doll riding around on his shoulder, and she was the only thing irreplaceable enough to work as a sacrifice when it came time to acquire his blood relic last fall.

To Break, loss is something holy, almost sacred -- something to be respected. If anyone ever tried to make another of that little shoulder doll, the but it isn't her of the gesture would break his heart. That's why his current state of corruption only makes him more protective of this little lion he's only just heard of.

You can't get back what you have lost.]

But not just any mouse, of course. An us sort of mouse. At the very least, it will want a tiny hat.

[onekindsoul]

[Ruby on the other hand had spent much of her time filling in the void of someone who had been lost. She sounds just like her mother, that's something her mother would do, she reminded everyone so much of her mother. It was a role she had become complacent and willing to play at the end of the day. Which- May be why it felt so natural to fall into the role of furniture for her. It was easier to fall into this than play at whoever she actually was.

She considers the idea of a hat briefly and gives a nod. And- despite being as deep into the corruption as she was. There was a brief glimmer of herself in her silver eyes.]

And a cape. ...Since I assume a gun wont be acceptable.