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

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..

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Still not convinced she's in her right mind. I think this place is doing something to her, and I also don't think you really want to do that. Bad for all kinds of relationships, trust me on that.

[Michael leans back in his chair, adopting a deliberately relaxed posture for all that his eyes are still sharp on her. He doesn't want to come off like he's gonna fight her. He really does not want things to go that way.]

If we leave for - say, a couple days? And she's still the same and wants to come back? Fine, no flesh off my bones.

[ Every single inch of Ange's body language makes it very, very obvious that she doesn't like even a single bit of this plan.

At least she's not moving to attack him or anything, but the girl certainly doesn't look pleased. Her fingers move, fretting in a way that's stuck midway between nerves and anger. ]

She's not going to leave.

[ Because Ange doesn't want her to, being one of the implications, but it's not the one she realises and addresses out loud after a moment with a shake of her head. ]

You can ask her. Ruby wouldn't want to leave this place.

That's what I'm afraid of. That's why I want to hear what she has to say outside this place. If it's really not affecting her at all, then she'll feel the same and she'll come right back - so there's no problem.

But she's not going to leave.

[ Ange speaks those words a little slower - like she's trying to put emphasis on every single one of them. As if she figures Michael won't understand them otherwise.

And there's definitely some simmering anger in them. ]

So you won't get to ask her outside. She will hurt you if you try to take her out of here.

Well, why would she do that? We're friends, and I'm worried about her. If she really wants to be here, it should be easy enough to walk outside and say so - it'd make me feel a lot better.

[He's in danger, huh]

Because Ruby doesn't want to leave this world. It's ours. [ Ange puts down her cup of tea.

Though she - at least - doesn't get up yet. ]

She wouldn't abandon our world for you. Not even for a minute.

[ Sorry for the (thankfully at least only metaphorical) burn, Michael..

At least Ange sure will feel sorry about this later. ]

We're each other's most important person, so our priority is with each other above anyone else.

Is your relationship seriously that fragile? That you can't ever spend two seconds away from each other? You sound like one of those men who locks their wife up in the attic like she's a fancy lamp.

[Okay, he did get sort of nettled by that, perhaps!]

Fine. I'll just take that other guy you live with. Guy's trip.

[ She frowns as she looks at him. ]

And what would you even know about that, Michael? Do you even have anyone like that in the first place?

[ Yeah-- Definitely being more catty than the usual here, huh.

Not that Ange can't be blunt and rude, but it's definitely not the sort of instrument she'd usually casually wield against her friends like this. ]

Besides, why would you want to talk to Break? Do you know him at all?

I pay attention to people. You know that.

[Michael seems a little more baffled than truly affronted; after all, it's not as though he's ever particularly wanted a wife, or a husband or whatever. He can tell it is meant as a jab, though, and that is annoying!]

And I don't need to know a guy to try and save him from magic jail. Which this still obviously is.

How many times do I need to tell you that you wouldn't be saving anyone? Ruby and Break are here because they want to be here!

[ She stands up, though she doesn't move closer to him around the table. Instead she leans with her hands on top of the table in his direction. ]

If I was really locking people up here, don't you think there would be more people? Don't you think I would be forcing you to stay? Instead I've been allowing you to just be here and insult me the entire time!

We're not family, Ange. You think I don't know that?

[She said it herself: he hasn't got any relationships like that.]

You being corrupted isn't an insult, it's just true! And if if were me, I'd be pissed off later if you just let me screw around with people and didn’t even say anything! You want me to lie so you can keep feeling good about all this?

[ She shakes her head violently - it makes her eyes glow even brighter, somehow. ]

I want you to stop pretending there's something wrong with me the one time I do something for myself in this hellhole! [ Michael is so right about what he's saying, though. And yet it seems that Ange just can't see it, just that little bit too far gone into corruption to still recognize solid reasoning when it's right in front of her. ]

Now you can either do that, or you can just leave!

No. You doing something for yourself doesn't have to come at everyone else's expense.

[He leans back, folding his arms, pointedly not getting up.]

You want me out of here? Make me. Just like you're doing to everyone else in this hellhole.

Fine!

[ Apparently Ange in her current state doesn't see that she'd just be proving his point - either that, or she's just too angry to care at this point.

Either way, the girl glares at him, and before Michael probably even has the opportunity to notice the black hole opening up underneath him, he's already dropping into it, like a free fall attraction at a funfair.

He's then dropped - unceremoniously, though not hard enough to really injure anything - onto the streets of Trench, outside of the pocket dimension. If he tries going over to Ruby and Ange's house again at all, there will seemingly no longer be a way in for him anymore. ]

[Honestly, at that point he was sort of hoping she'd just attack him. This also proves him right! But it all happens so fast that he can't get out a word about it before - blip! He's gone!

He clambers to his feet and, once he sees no one's really around, vents a burst of flame.]

Fuck.

[Great! He accomplished nothing and now he just feels like shit!]

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

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