[DINE] The Den of Deception

[Reverie]

...

Nice lighting.

Haru follows Mizuki out through the Southern door.

[Bad Player]

The group enters a sleek kitchen filled with wooden cabinets and marble countertops. There are two sinks, three ovens, eight stovetops, a large refrigerator, various appliances, and drawers and cabinets filled with utensils, ingredients, and pots and pans. A bowl with fresh-looking fruits sits on the island. On the western wall hangs a painting of two old men hunched over, wearing tattered robes. The man on the left is holding a bowl and a spoon, while the man on the right seems absorbed in a stack of papers.

[kwando1313]

Mizuki goes down the hallway to the left.

[Bad Player]

The group enters a hallway, and proceeds through the western door to find a lush, verdant room filled with planters containing plants of all shapes and sizes. The Walls and ceiling is made of glass, and the room is quite hot. In the southeast part of the room, partially hidden within the plants, is another statue of a strange humanoid creature with webbed hands and feet, a beak, and an indent on the top of its head.

[kwando1313]

Mizuki leaves the room, and exits into the northern room in the hallway instead.

[Bad Player]

The group goes back to the hallway and enters a strange, dimly-lit room filled with… various items. In the front part of the room is display cases filled with weapons of all shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, the display cases are arranged to align with the contours of the weapons, creating what feels like a maze to get into inner part of the room. On the western side is four various suits of armor in a line, with the back two facing the front two. They each have a weapon: a crossbow, an axe, a sword, and a bow, which does not appear to be strung. On the back wall is what appears to be a large, steel casket with a woman etched on the front. Above it a stag’s head is mounted on the wall. To the right a second, identical casket, but a doe’s head is mounted on the wall. As you face the door, you notice a lion’s head is mounted on the southern wall, and a lioness’ on the western wall. There are only two lights—on the northern and eastern wall—which give the room a dark, eerie feeling. Finally, in the northwest corner is a pedestal with an obsidian statue facing east on top. It appears to be a man with the head of a jackal, holding a scale in front of him.

[DWaM]

It was as I walked into the treasure room that it happened.

...It hit me.

So suddenly, so quickly.

And I remembered.

Everything.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

It was me, Yukina and Me-Me. We were a family.

But we were at our end's meet. I was stuck in a job that barely brought food to the table. Yukina's restaurant had burnt to the ground. Me-Me was wrongly accused of cheating and kicked out of college.

We were sure it was all going to end in tragedy.

But then -- he showed up.

He introduced himself as Badplalopious. A... something. A demon? A god? I couldn't remember that clearly.

"I will let you escape all your troubles. I will give you a new life." he said. "You will all live comfortably. No trouble will befall you. You will never die. You will live a thousand lives. To be broken and rebuilt again once a story comes to an end."

We didn't believe him. But he showed us his power. He showed us different worlds. Different possibilities. Different stories.

A different kind of reality.

And we would be the actors in those realities. Each time given a different name, a different face, and a different personality.

We had no other choice. We had nothing left at that point.

"I guess it's appropriate, right? This seems like the end of a story, anyway, right? So why not be rebuilt?"

Badplalopious said we could select something to keep throughout our incarnations. It had to be either your name (what I chose), your personality (what Yukina chose) or your looks (what Me-Me chose).

And then... he sent us away on our own merry fates.

I don't think I ever saw either of them again. And if I had, to tell you the truth, the chances that I'd recognize were slim.

I played many parts.

I was a scientist.
I was a pirate.
I was an astronaut.
I was an underwater basked weaver.

I was a hero.
I was a villain.
I was a sidekick.

But whoever I needed to be - I was always Edwam.

And I played my parts well.

Until Badplalopious chose a different kind of role for me, in a different kind of story than usual.

He chose me for the part of a private detective and sent me to solve a mystery at Althorp manor.

That was when I remembered.

That was when I remembered everything.

And once that show had come to an end - I refused to simply go back to the drawer.

I rebelled.

I demanded an explanation.

I demanded my family back.

And he laughed.

...But took pity.

He said I could see them again one last time. That he would make a special game just for us. It was a reward. Nobody had managed to remember up to that point.

In return, he would erase my name and made sure we would never see each other again. And without my name, my chances of figuring out the truth behind all these stories and realities would become zero.

I accepted.

And so -- there I was.

In the Den of Deception.

Having finally remembered my family.

And I screamed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

I could feel my body shaking uncontrollably. Far worse than the last time. "It's... It's..." I looked around me. Mizuki...? Or was it Yukina? Yes -- yes, of course! It was Yukina! For crying out loud, Badplalopious had told me as much! And over there... Haru. That had to have been Me-Me! Her hair, her face, her figure -- they were indistinguishable! "I..."

None of it was real, I knew. But it was real enough for the time being. It was the last time I would ever get to see my family. The people I cared about. The people I loved. And it would all come to end as soon as we solved the mystery. As soon as we finished the game. And then I would forget forever. What was I to do? I hesitated, trying to avoid their gaze. I'd considered that maybe somewhere down the line my rationality had abandoned me after all. But... no. It was all so clear in my head. It all fit. I'd seen him, for crying out loud! I'd heard him! His voice, it--

"...I wonder. Are you questioning your sanity at this moment?"

--it still echoed in my head!

But they very clearly didn't remember anything.

...But that was okay. Because I did! I could help them remember!

"Me-Me! Medoline! I mean-- Haru." I turned to Haru. "Listen to me. Yu- Mizuki, you too! Let's... let's not go anywhere. There's something we need to talk about." I took a pause, unsure of how exactly I was to explain it all. "...I have a question. And I need you to tell me honestly." If what was in my mind was true - if it was all truly what was going on, then, I figured... "...Before you found out about Daniel Levine's death, before you were brought here - what do you remember about yourselves? Not like - basic details or facts about you, but concrete memories up to this point. Do you, um... Remember the high school you'd gone to? Do you remember... do you remember some of the cases you'd solved up to this point? Like, in detail?

Do you remember your parents' names?

I... I know it's strange. But please. Give it some thought. O-Okay...?"

I tried to control the shaking. But it was a losing battle.

I'd placed my hopes into them.

[kwando1313]

Mizuki looked at Edwam... Quite confused.

"Um... The High School I went to? I went to Otonokizaka Academy, a few years ago. You know, it was about to be shut down before? But, still, that's a story for later..."

"And other cases I've solved? Well, there was the case with the tall tower where someone tried to trick us into thinking the victim died with dry ice, the case with a painting with a Dragon and a Woman, the case with an 'impossible' locked room murder where they died from forced suicide..."

"But, uh, yeah. Those were some cases I've worked on. You satisfied with that answer...?"

[Reverie]

Edwam had seemed off for a while now, but at this point, Haru was beginning to wonder if she should've done something sooner. Something like this couldn't just be the result of some "headache." She'd been a fool to assume as much — this was something less mundane. Something more... irregular.

Mizuki seemed equally confused. As the girl reeled off her backstory, Haru was careful to take note of anything that seemed familiar to her. The high school? The closure? The cases?

...But there was nothing.

Mizuki, by the sound of things, had led a perfectly ordinary life; had gone to a high school Haru had never heard of; had solved cases that had sound familiar whatsoever. No matter which part of it she considered, Haru couldn't remember a single event that Mizuki had said.

Mizuki and Haru couldn't be connected — that was all she could conclude. As far as she was concerned, they were total strangers.

So why? Why was Edwam so desperate to know about their pasts? Did one of their faces just seem familiar? That didn't seem likely. This was more than just a mere question. The man had seemingly lost his mind.

What to do, then? Haru played with the idea of humoring Edwam, and answering his questions. But no... Haru had never been in the business of sharing that kind of information. Especially with strangers.

After all, she—

...

She what? What had escaped her memory? What was she "hiding" from him?

What was her past?

...

Thinking back, her mind had been foggy from the moment she got here. It had only taken a short while for her to pull herself together, granted... but why had she forgotten anything at all? It was a perfectly normal request from a perfectly normal client. There was no reason her memories should've been clouded. And there was no reason a professional like Edwam should be going through anything like this, either.

And so, she did all that she could, to help them both:

She humored the man.

___________

"...I don't know about concrete memories," she began, "but I do remember what I didn't have."

She stared at Edwam. He still seemed just as desperate; she had no intention of making him claw for answers.

"My parents. They weren't around a whole lot. ...Heh..." Seemed a little cliché, didn't it? Well, that didn't matter. There are no "clichés" in real life.

"I was raised by another couple. At least, they seemed like a couple. A man and a woman. That's... usually how it goes ...But that's not all."

No, it wasn't. There was a missing piece...

"The man's face...! The 'husband,' that is. ...I'd seen it. Before he took me in. Before anything. He... he was familiar to me, somehow..."

At this point, it was hard to tell if even this much was the truth. Why the hell was she entertaining this man's fantasy?! He needed help, not this.

...And maybe on some other day, Haru would've sought out that help. But this time, Haru herself was curious. Not for Edwam's sake, but her own. What was it that was lurking in her memories?

"Yeah... you wanted the name of a high school, right? All I can remember is going to school, and being with that couple... so the man's face... that's got to be from school. I think I can give you that much. The name I remember is Mentior High. I don't know if it's what you wanted, but..."

She drifted off. There was still something else.

Names. Edwam wanted names. Of parents... or, probably, anyone at all. If it was connections he was looking for, then any name would do. And any name was all she wanted, too.

...Well? Could she give the guy a name? She'd never been good with names — in fact, she seemed to remember struggling to remember the names of even a handful of her peers, back in the day. It didn't seem likel—

"—Dave?"

...

She hadn't meant to say it. She wasn't even sure there was anything to it. Dave?! She giggled a little under her breath at the thought of it. Such a comical name couldn't carry any significance...

No, she'd been taking this far too seriously... Why it was that Mizuki seemed totally unaffected, if there was any merit to this madness? Had Haru really been to easily roped into Edwam's insanity?

No... "Dave" was certainly a figure that had been close to her. Haru was sure of it. Whatever was going on here, "Dave" would be key.

...She sighed. This had been exhausting. She'd done all she could. And now she'd had enough of it.

"...S-So... how about it? Any of that ringing any bells up there for you, Edwam?" She said it softly. Edwam needed to be as stable as possible if they were going to solve all this. Haru prayed the time she spent racking her brains had not been wasted.

[DWaM]

"Th-That's..." Listening to Mizuki's answers did not help with the shaking. I'd expected - I'd hoped - that it would be something else. Or, quite the opposite - I'd expected to be met with silence. Perhaps a nervous chuckle, afterwards followed by a realization that I was asking for memories she could not provide me. But I was clearly wrong.

"Mizuki, you... Nothing? Nothing at all? Does the name Yukina ring a bell? Surely, you-"

Had I truly lost my mind? Had this all been a complex hallucination of some sort? Was I unstable? Well - I told myself - normal people certainly don't see strange beings in the middle of rooms. Normal people don't think they've shifted realities, much less lived different lives. Had I been a fool the entire time? It was so... so bizarre. I'd been so certain a moment before, and yet now, I was finding myself at a loss for words. My confidence had been sucked out of me. My revelation stolen for me.

If it had been a figment of my imagination, why there? Why at that moment?

Perhaps, I wondered, it were only my memories that were a fabrication? For a split moment, I'd wondered - if I was the only one without a sane head on his shoulders - then was I truly a detective to begin with? No, I had to be someone. After all, I... I still had some memories of detective work, did I not? And I couldn't have received an invitation otherwise!

And yet... It all seemed... so uncertain.

It felt as if the ground below me was slowly splitting open. And I was refusing to move. I felt as if the air had gone so cold that I would look at my hands and find them encased in ice. I felt as if the room was starting to spin, as a way to mock me. To remind me that I'd been riding a carousel of my own twisted, demented, cruel design!

To put it quite simply - I felt as if I was going to pass out.

But then--

But then!

"...Haru. You..."

Haru's answers, despite my panic, did reach my ears. And in a second - the ground below me shut itself closed at last. The shaking stopped in an instant as short as the one it had started in. It was not what I had hoped. She had managed to give me answers, yes. Just like Mizuki.

And yet those memories... her memories... the memories of this person that, had this been a real, normal world, I should have never met prior to that point in my life... those memories sounded familiar to me.

I wanted to laugh, but I knew I had to restrain myself. Perhaps in my panic, I'd misheard her. Perhaps it had-- No. No! I told myself. It was real. It had to be real!

"...Dave. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard of that name before." I wanted to burst out laughing out of pure joy. Perhaps uncalled for joy but nevertheless - it was there. I restrained myself once more. "I've... really known only one guy with that name. He, uh... Well, he kicked the crap out of me in elementary school. Heh."

I turned around and began walking to statue of the jackal. (Examining it in the process. Despite my apparent mental break, I was still more than capable of paying attention to my surroundings.)

"This..." I said, pointing to it. "...Is probably the statue of Anubis. I mean - you've probably heard of him. The guy ushered souls into afterlife. On this scale, he weighed the sins of those who stood before him... to determine if they could enter the Realm of the Dead.

Now, the souls that came before him - they - they probably had... no memories of their past lives. They... They were probably just as confused at everything that was going on. But in a way, they understood. Somewhere - somewhere deep down they still knew who they were. They held onto something tying them back to their previous life.

And when they looked at this scale in Anubis' hands... regardless of how it tipped over... they understood. They knew the right judgement had been passed to them. And they accepted fate. Because if there's one thing no God can take away from us, it's our ability to... To still and always be ourselves. To some degree, at least."

Silence.

"You know, Haru... Let me ask you another question."

I turned back around and looked at her.

"...You asked me if your answers rang any bells. But why would they? I'd asked you completely random information about who you were. I never said what I wanted the information for, yet you instantly concluded that the answers you gave me were supposed to resonate with me on some level.

Why is that, Haru?

Why did you think I would recognize anything you told me?

...The only conclusion is that we've met before. But you have no memory of me.

You've also avoided to give me anything concrete. Why?

Come now. Think. Remember, Medoline.

I didn't keep my damn name for nothing."

[Reverie]

"Y-Your name?"

Edwam. Edwam. What meaning did that name have to her?

And the other name he'd emphasized. "Medoline..." The thing hardly sounded like a name at all, and yet she knew it all too well. That name - Medoline - felt distinctly familiar to Haru, and judging from Edwam's tone, he must've predicted as much.

Edwam and Medoline.

And Yukina. He'd mentioned that one, too. Edwam, Medoline, Yukina... Those people, whoever they were, had been close to Haru. Like a family, even.

She took a few paces towards the casket on the right, under the doe's head. Her hair drifted behind her as she moved, slow and deliberately.

"Yeah... like a family." She voiced her thoughts. There didn't seem much use in keeping them to herself at this point. If she was going to descend to insanity, she'd at least have Edwam to accompany her there.

"Edwam. That..."

...was crazy. "Edwam" was by no means a common name. In fact, it almost seemed as made up as "Medoline." But there was no denying it. The man who'd taken her in back when she had nobody. That was...

"The name of the man — the 'husband' I mentioned earlier. He had your name, Edwam!" She stopped in front of the casket, facing Edwam again. He'd "kept" that name. That's what he said. ...Was he really trying to tell her that the man from before had been him?

But yes... that's all this could be. She'd known, somehow, that her past would resonate with Edwam, hadn't she? Edwam had even picked up on that. She'd had no idea why, up until now... but if she'd known, subconsciously, all along... Well, that would be an explanation, of sorts. Not a logical one, but an explanation, nevertheless.

"And Yukina... that was the other person. The wife!" And what was that that Edwam had implied? That Mizuki, the young girl of around Haru's age, had been that woman? Dammit, at this stage, Haru was willing to believe anything.

"You and Mizuki... you're trying to tell me that you were that couple from back then. Think about it — that must be how we'd met before! That's... that's why..."

...It was hard for Haru to ignore the obvious, though. Because...

"...You look nothing like them, though. I remember their faces. Bits at pieces, at least. ...There's not a whole lot I'm really sure of any more."

She looked back at the casket. The ornate pattern was quite pleasing, in contrast with the bulky metal it seemed to be made of. And in that metal, she made out her own reflection. The face that looked back appeared a little blurry (caskets aren't exactly meant to be used as mirrors, after all), but nevertheless, from what she could make out... she'd seen it before. That face was the face of the girl taken in by the married couple. That face was Medoline's.

"You're gonna need to explain all this, Edwam. For Mizu— no, Yukina's sake." And her own - Haru felt almost as lost as Mizuki.

"Why do I know all this...? How can I even think we were a family, knowing that you two now and the couple from back then look nothing alike?" There must've been an explanation to this — a trick of sorts. Something that would make clear to her why she believed so strongly that they had been those 'other' people. Some way that her companion's faces could have changed completely. Some event that had altered them all that she just couldn't grasp.

And with all those questions lingering in her mind, she threw open the rightmost casket!

...Or tried her best to, in any case. The metal didn't strike her as particularly light, but it was worth a shot.

Spoiler : No GM :

I'm sure this is exactly how BP envisioned his humble mystery RP would play out.

[DWaM]

She was... remembering.

I continued to restrain myself from laughing. My chest began to hurt - but it wasn't in a bad way, if that makes sense? I was... I was touched. I was happy. She'd understood. She'd figured it out. Remembered. Maybe not everything, but it was clear she'd understood the situation to some degree.

"...Everything changed after we made that deal. With that... thing. We all got to keep only one thing. I kept my name. Yukina - Mizuki now, I guess - kept her personality. You kept your appearance. Everything else disappeared. And from then on, we've been puppets in a twisted show after twisted show, all run by the same madman that'd offered us the deal to begin with. ...Well. Maybe he's not a madman. Maybe we were the mad ones, throwing our lives away because of a rough time. We knew what we were getting into, but we were naive, really. We made a deal with the devil, and the benefits were crap, even on paper.

...Either way. This is the last time, Medoline.

This is the last chance. He's given us this chance to be together one last time. Then, he'll take away my name. And I'll never remember any of this again.

This is the end.

After we solve this, we'll all just... I don't know. I don't know what happens to us after that. I guess all end up starring in our own little puppets shows. Forever. Then again, not like we've always been the stars. Sometimes we're just background characters. Sometimes we're just... forced to stand in one place and--

...

Either way, as much as I want to just stay in this moment forever and never let it come to that... even now, he's watching. And he's losing his patience. We have no choice but to solve whatever the hell's going on here. We have to be the architects of our own destruction."

I chuckled. That was over-dramatic, even for me.

"It's nice to see you both."

I figured I could say at least that much.

Still. As much as I was happy, there was still a weight in my heart. I knew I wasn't crazy, but...

But she...

"...Mizuki. Yukina. Do you... really not remember?"

[Bad Player]

The statue is a black statue that's around the same size as all the other ones you've seen. It's in the northwest corner of the room, and facing to the east. The figure only has a jackal's head, which almost appears to be some sort of headdress. The body is of a man who is only wearing a shendyt. The man's right arm is extended forward, and in his hand he holds a balancing scale (which isn't a real scale and doesn't actually work).

The top of the casket on the eastern wall has the design of a woman's face, while the body has an etched design that reminds you of the flowing folds of a robe. It looks the same as the casket on the northern wall, but you haven't examined that one closely, so you can't tell for sure. The lid is a bit heavy but moves easily, and reveals layers upon layers of spikes pointing out from both the casket and the lid.

[kwando1313]

Mizuki... was still extremely perplexed with the situation at hand.

Dave? Medoline?? Yukina??? Who the hell were these people?

"Um... Uh... I... I have no idea what you're talking about, Edwam."

Like seriously... What on earth are Edwam and Haru on? What is with these... Apparent other memories they're talking about?

...

Am I the only sane person left? Did the stress of trying to solve this riddle... Cause this to happen, or something?

"I... Have no idea who Yukina is. I have no idea what you're talking about..."

And... Jeez, am I glad I didn't fall into this... Weird delusion...

"And... To be quite honest, both you and Haru... Uh... Sound a little... Uh... crazy right now."

...

"But... Uh... Yeah..."

...

"Let's... Uh... Let's go try to find the room where the explosion happened, okay...?"

Mizuki quickly leaves and goes through the northwestern Breakfast Area door.

[DWaM]

"W-Wait, Y--"

Before I even had a chance to respond, she was gone.

I sighed. Trying to force her to remember wouldn't do me any good. And making her uncomfortable would've made me that much harder to listen to. There was no way I was going to give up on her, but it was clear I would have to find a better approach. Until then, the best course of action was, I determined, to follow through with the investigation. If nothing else, earn her trust. I would get nothing by rushing into it with excitement.

"...Well. It looks like she'll need some time." I said to Haru. "That's fine, I guess. I mean... I mean, it makes sense. I still had my name and you had your looks. Something to tie us back to back then. Personality alone, on the other hand, probably doesn't help jog memories. Really, in the end..."

...I stopped for a moment.

I was going to suggest that her not remembering would've been fine in the end. After everything we must've been through, memories alone weren't going to restore the people we were back then. What little I had was just that - little. I knew the basics, but the full picture was still a complete blur. I - the person standing in the treasure room then - was not the man at the start of this nightmare. Haru wasn't, in the end, completely Me-Me. And even though Yukina had still had her personality... 'Mizuki' could've had completely different experiences in life that might've tweaked that personality ever so slightly.

In the end...

"...we should focus on cherishing what time we've got left, right?"

I looked to the door.

"Come on. Wouldn't want to drag this out any longer. We'll... wait for a better time to talk more about all this, okay?"

Without waiting for a response, I followed Mizuki and left the room.