[DINE] The Den of Deception

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Bad Player
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by Bad Player »

The long table with a white tablecloth and armless chairs with red cushions clearly identify this room as the dining room. The dark green carpet makes the room feel darker than it probably actually is. There is a small chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room, and in two opposite corners of the room are lighted statues of a man and a woman, each holding a lantern. A potted plant is in another corner. In the final corner is a dark statue of a winged horse set upon a pedestal. On the west wall is a painting of four dark figures that seem to be floating above a lake landscape. In the center is a topless figure with hands behind their back. The figure to the right has their back turned and is carrying a pair of scissors. To the left is a figure looking through a lens, and then a figure holding what looks like a small statue of a person.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by kwando1313 »

Mizuki examines the winged horse statue.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by DWaM »

"Hey, remember that time you were an austronaut? How about when you were a pirate?"

Someone said as I entered the dining room. I jumped. But I saw nobody the voice could've belonged to.

It was then that I found myself somewhere else again.

I was sitting at a kitchen table. A radio was playing in the background. I was staring at some letters. Bills, my the looks of it. Long overdue.

I sighed and I looked up. Again, no control over my body. Another memory, it seemed.

To my right was... a woman I didn't recognize. And to my left was... Haru. What on Earth was Haru doing there?

"I don't know what we're gonna do, I said."

"We'll find a way." the person to my right assured me. "I called a lawyer who said he can get the insurance company to pay for what happened to the restaurant. It-"

"Oh, please." 'Haru' interjected. "It's a foregone conclusion at this point. They're not gonna pay out. And once they don't, we'll have to deal with the fees for that lawyer. This'll only make things worse, Yukina!"

"Me-Me! Calm down!" I said. It seemed I was mistaken. 'Haru' was actually... Me-Me. And judging by what she'd said, this other person was... Yukina? "It will all be okay." I assured them. "I still have my job."

Me-Me's voice was filled more with pity than anger as she said: "But it's not enough, Edwam."

I sighed.

"I know.

...I know."

Yukina put her hand on my shoulder. "We'll make it through this."

"Not without a miracle." Me-Me put it bluntly.

It was then that the doorbell rang.

"Why couldn't you have been mild-mannered or something...?" Yukina sighed, smiling at Me-Me.

Me-Me returned the smile. "In another world, maybe I am. But here, I'm a realist. An realistically, we're kinda screwed."

The doorbell rang again.

"I've got it." I got up to answer, leaving the two to continue discussing in the kitchen.

I opened the front door.

It was a man.

"Good evening, Edwam. My name is Ba—"


Black.

And my mind was sent back to reality.

I shook my head, beyond frustrated, and carried on.

I walked over to the painting. "...Hm. Well, four statues holding four distinct objects. That's... that's gotta be related to something, right?" I then turned to face the direction of the winged horse. "Back then, in the parlor... wasn't there a statue of a dragon, as well? Statues of mythical beasts... that's probably gonna be important, too..."

I walked over to one of the statues holding the lanterns - the woman - and examined it. I tried to see how easy it would be to push it (being careful not to move it too far.)
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by Reverie »

Haru takes a look at the remaining statue (the man), and tries to remove the lantern from it.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by Bad Player »

It's a pitch-black statue of a horse with feathered wings, done in moderate detail, with a circular base. It's big enough to fit comfortably in your two hands, but it's also kind of weighty.

Each statue is a metallic statue of a man wearing simple clothing holding up a lantern. The lantern is the only part not made entirely of metal (and is instead made of some semi-opaque material) seems to have an actual light inside, and is turned on, helping to light the room. The lantern (and any other part of the statue) can't be rotated or moved... but it looks like if you fiddle with it, the lantern part might open up. The statue itself also can't be moved; considering the lanterns turned on when you turned on the light switch in the room, it's probably connected to the house's wiring.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by kwando1313 »

...

That wasn't particularly interesting.

"Err... Let's go somewhere else."

Mizuki leaves the room and goes through the door on the North Wall.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by Bad Player »

The group heads through the north door. You enter into a long, dimly-lit room that reminds you of a classy pub. A long bar runs down near the western wall, and behind it countless bottles of liquor and spirits line the wall. A couple of red stools sit in front of the bar, which is filled with glasses, mixers, and other components for drinking. A dart board is on the southern wall, and near it a couple of armchairs in a circle. In your can almost hear the sound of smooth jazz in the air, and what do you know, there’s a shelf filled with records, with a gramophone and a second, similar-looking machine on top. Near the center of the western wall is another obsidian statue on a pedestal of a creature with the body of a lion, wings, and the head of a woman. You think you see a second statue in the northwest corner of the room, but can't tell what it is from your vantage point. On the eastern wall is a large painting of a figure with a black cloak and a goat’s head is speaking to a large group of women, who are huddled together with grotesque and twisted features. In the center a woman wearing a white cloak and veil kneels facing the group, and to the right a woman in a black cloak is sitting in a chair a small distance from the group.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by kwando1313 »

Mizuki examines the records and gramophone.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by DWaM »

"That's your wife over there, you know."

In the dead-center of the room, I saw him. Standing confidently. Proudly. A tall, sleek figure. He was dressed in a sweatshirt, a blue beanie on his head. A hobo of some kind, for lack of a better word. I couldn't see his eyes, though. And he was smiling.

Oh, that smile.

Nobody else seemed to notice or react to him, though. Nobody even so much as glanced in his direction.

"W-Who's that...?" I asked.

"They can't see me, Edwam. But really, calm down. It's just little ol' me."

"Who are you?"

"After all that remembering, to forget it all so soon... And to have me now to make my interlude and make you remember... It's frankly a bit embarrassing. I'm not sure for who, though..."

"Who ARE you?" I demanded. But I remembered the voice. It was the same one from the nightmare.

In a single flash of clarity, I knew.

"My name..." he began. "Is Badplalopious. I am the God of this world. I made", he gestured to his surroundings, "all of this. I put all of you in here, my precious figurines to play this game. Another special game. You are one of my main characters. And so is 'Mizuki'. And so is 'Haru'. It's a shame you don't remember them. You really should. I went through so much effort to put the three of you in here..."

"I don't understand. I don't understand!"

"Then let me give you at least one of the answers."

He pointed to Mizuki. "That's your wife. Or, well, was your wife. Before you made a deal with me, once, long ago."

"Wh-What deal...?" I asked. "I don't understand."

He seemed to ignore the question. "Her name was Yukina. It's a shame -- I don't recall what she looked like in the 'before' time. Medoline - or, rather - Haru now, on the other hand, I do. Since... well, she hasn't exactly changed that face of hers."

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Well," he chuckled, "when someone makes a deal with me, I give them a choice. As my pawn, you can either:

A) Keep your first name. That was what you chose.
B) Keep your personality. Which was what Yukina chose.
and C) Keep your apperance. Which was what Medoline's pick.

How lucky of me, you three all showed up on my doorstep and all three chose for something else. Variation! That's where it's at!"


"I don't get it. I DON'T GET IT, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" I screamed.

...But my answer never came. Because he was gone.

I shook, unsure of what to do next.

I looked around. Nobody in sight but the people I'd walked in with. There was Mizuki... or was it Yukina?

Had it all been... a hallucination?

"I'm... I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me." I said. To nobody in particular. "A-Another painting... Another statue... The person in the painting has a goat's head. Could be Satan, I suppose. And where there's Satan, there's Hell. And where there's Hell..." I took a few steps forward into the room, catching a glimpse of the statue in the northwest corner of the room. "...How did the riddle go, again? That one line?

Finally, he decides; will I fall down to Hades below?

...If that's Hell in that painting, this room could have something to do with it."

How fitting would it have been?

To meet the Devil in the Devil's Room?
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by Reverie »

A... pub.

She supposed it was expected of such a rich owner to have a room like this. Owners of large mansions possessing a fondness for fine drinks and music was something of a cliché to her.

Less cliché was the amount of statues dotted about the place. There'd been some in almost all the rooms so far, and this one didn't seem to be an exception. The prescence -- a statue? -- to the Northwestern wall unnerved her a little; Edwam seemed to have noticed it too. In the interest of efficiency, she decided to examine something else while... whatever that was... was being taken care of.

Haru approached the liquor/spirits behind the bar, carefully examining their contents.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by Bad Player »

The gramophone is your standard gramophone: there's a flat wooden box with a crank and needle upon which a record can be placed, and a large metal horn blooming out. There are many records, mostly jazz, but also some other genres like classical and rock. The records are all arranged by genre, then artist, then album.

Inside the liquor bottles, there appears to be... liquor!
Last edited by Bad Player on Mon Apr 17, 2017 6:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by kwando1313 »

Mizuki plays some jazz on the gramophone.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by Bad Player »

Jazz can now be heard throughout the room.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by Reverie »

...Very insightful.

It looked like Edwam had merely glimpsed at the North-Western wall from across the room. Haru decided to take matters into her own hands, and walked towards the wall with the statue(?) beside it, examining whatever it may be.
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Re: [DINE] The Den of Deception

Post by kwando1313 »

Mizuki then decides to look at the alcohol.
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