[In the late evening, the video suddenly turns on as there's a loud thump and a splatter, like something wet just hit the ground next to the vine. At the first, the picture is dark and its hard to make out the shape there. A trembling silhouette, hunched over as it rises unsteadily off the ground - the form seems small and thin, but draped in lengthy darkness - hair? - but also the limbs seems somehow... too long. Claws?

What little light there is reflects off the eyes of the cats coming to greet the new arrival, but as they draw closer, they hiss and their hair stands on end before they turn and run. The figure in the dark collapses back onto the ground again, curling up, shrinking in on itself.

For a moment, all is still. Then there's a soft, muffled noise as that huddled figure trembles. Sobbing. The vine finally sheds some light on the situation, illuminating the curled, dripping wet form of Kazumi, curled up in a glen on the grassy floor, clutching herself and sobbing quietly. It's a few moments before she opens her eyes, looking around, noticing the vine for the first time. She looks helpless, lost, but her first question isn't "Where am I?"]

Who am I? What am I?

[text]
Since the Powers That Be have decided that they want to give us all cavities and diabetes, I am keeping a big pot of stew going at Beaumont for anyone who needs emergency food that is not candy. If I am not there, Bulbasaur or one of the robots will be in charge of it. Do not worry, they are all sanitary. It is free to use so do not avoid it if you do not have food. There are severe health consequences to eating only sugar, which I guess the people in charge do not care about.

-----

Also if there is anybody that needs a place to stay, Beaumont has a lot of rooms open. It is by the lake on the northwest side, and is pretty convenient as far as being close to places. There are some robots here that do the housekeeping stuff. Also you will get a lot of free snacks because I bake a lot. I guess that is not much of a benefit right now but there you go. Pets are OK.

[action/video]

[Hi, Ladygarden residents. Do you like your reality TV to have normally linefaced girls curled up on the ground and crying in the middle of nowhere? Because the Vine has decided that is the hot new thing in entertainment. (The more perceptive viewers might notice she seems less opaque around the edges than usual.)

[After a moment, she notices the mirror broadcasting her. She makes a few awkward attempts to turn it off, then lets her arm flop to the ground.]

Fine. I give up.

[Today, we see Raven sitting in the shade somewhere outside, doing some morning meditation. Eyes closed, legs crossed, arms to her sides and... levitating. In any case, she keeps repeating the same words over and over again:

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos"

The mantra continues to be recited without interruption until some visitors make their way to her.

Opening her eyes, she now notices that she's literally surrounded by Bellosom. While the creatures are certainly happy to see her, Raven doesn't seem to be nearly as excited.]

... Go away.

[Not excited in the slightest as she attempts to go back to her meditation. However, the Bellosom have other plans as several of them begin to chant their own name, much to Raven's growing irritation.]

Bellosom! Bellosom! Bellosom!

I said-

[Nope, sorry Raven, the Bellosom are currently busy dancing and trying to bring some cheer into your life! To which she responds with being visibly angry and...

... Is that a black aura surrounding her entire body? Sure does look like it.]

Wretch.

[It is a single withering syllable before the mirror takes form, the voice piercing through the silence with its anger. As the image solidifies within, the Warrior Princess waits, expression dark.]

You will return the Damsel to me, or I shall take out your still-beating heart.

[Again she waits for an answer, one which is not forthcoming. That stormy expression, shadows brooding across her brow, soon becomes hardened and stony. She is resolved, and her eyes lift, looking out at whoever has gathered as her audience.]

I will not tolerate this slight to our independence. These Queens, for all the good their 'nobility' does for them, have refused to resolve this situation. I will resolve it for them. I will lay waste on she who dares pluck the Damsel from this grove.

I call upon all of you, all of you who hold friends and loved ones near to your heart, to take up your swords alongside me. If you do not wield one of your own, then I beg you put your spirit behind mine: there is still much work for hands such as yours. The blacksmith is no lesser a warrior.

Come together and we will form something unbreakable.

[She takes something from her belt, a scroll that she begins to untie as she continues to speak.]

I need scouts to survey the Garden while preparations are being made, and I will need these. [She holds up the plans to what appears to be a flying machine.] She is quick and she is crafty, but so shall we be.

Who is with me.

[It is not a question.]

[Good morning, Ladyguardens. Hope you were awake, because if you weren't, you certainly will be, as you're about to be greeted by a shriek going off through the vines.

A good, long, ear-piercing shriek, followed by this message:]

RUBY! IRIS! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS? HELP ME, I'M NOT GOOD AS A SOLO HERO! WE ARE SO MUCH BETTER AS A TRIO.

[There's a pause, the speaker seemingly taking a breath.]

My diphtheria is acting up again. And I don't think these flowers are hypoallergenic. This isn't safe. Everything is too sunshiney here, there's cats that aren't dead and singing birds and...and...it's like Friday the 13th all over again.

Either I've truly been kidnapped against my will, or this is an incredibly vivid hallucination brought on by consuming too many of Skullboy's home-made pierogies. And they all said I was the bad cook.

[Another pause, this one a tad bit longer.]

If you two actually aren't listening, then...if anyone who is sees a doll-girl with red hair or a tiny cyclops with a hyperactivity problem, please find them and tell them Misery is here and needs her first-aid kit.

( Alessa awakens again )

[The Vine offers a new text to the residents. Unusually, the words aren't hand written, but singed into the parchment.]

Is this Paradise?

[Hello, mirror. It seems that... Zinc may just be waking up after a few rather unpleasant days, a wave of gleaming green snakes slithering away from her, disappearing into the grass with a faint rustling. She opens her dark eyes slowly, staring off at nothing blankly for a long time.

Eventually, she makes an attempt to lift her head, but she lays back down tiredly, blinking without speaking.

It is a while still before she curls an arm under her head, getting more comfortable, although she's frowning and her eyes don't lift to the mirror. The reason for that will be quite apparent in a moment because she murmurs,]

I can't see anything.



[[ooc; I am still tagging that log. Very slowly, I'm so sorry. Sob. I just didn't want to have to backdate this any further. If anybody wants to take credit for her second death, they can have it. Otherwise it's a suicide, and... I'll just be ambiguous about it until that gets settled.]]

*Video

[She had done her best to avoid being wildcarded...at least, she hoped that somehow she had been able to avoid something turning her into anything weird. But after that run in with the faeries something was bound to give, and she went from one minute looking like a bunny girl in the broadest sense of the word to then looking more the part.

At least, more the fan girlish, male gaze grabbing type, and no matter what she did, there was no way to get anything off. Her knee socks were now thigh highs, her shirt and skort swapped for a thin one piece, a cotton tail on her butt and, to add insult to injury? A sudden need for carrots.

So she is out in the field, munching on said vegetable, clothes skimpy and demeanor ranging from exasperation to twitchy rabbit to sexually flirtatious, depending on the person.]

Guys? H-help!

[Her default right now was "what the crud"]

[[OOC: Fionna is wildcarded, and depending on who you are, she will respond to you in either of the three aforementioned modes.]]

[There is much rustling through the tree fort, and a frantic bunny person has a rather pained expression. She knows its happened, and if she had any sense, would have expected and thought about it. But Fionna was a person who preferred to put the bad things that happened out of her mind in favor of the good stuff, and there was still plenty of that, so long as there was still a reminder she had her bros here.

But that ended today. No bros. No Cake. No one to share her space with. Just a big, empty tree fort. And saying that to herself, seeing that empty space where Marceline's room was, where Princess Bubblegum's room was, that just hurt worse than anything that happened.

She just feels lost right now.]

[Video]

Uh, so Marceline is gone. So if you guys knew her...she was a pretty bombastic friend, and you oughta know so you don't find out later. *sniffs* She was pretty cool.

[What the Vine reveals this time is quite a sight. A young woman stands, angrily tying a fur skirt around her waist over her pants, hair hanging messily in her eyes. To the side sits the white shift she doubtless woke up in, in a crumpled heap and smoldering in more than one place. Now dressed, she picks up a scroll, the edges signed, and wrenches it open only to let out a furious huff a few moments later.

Then she stomps closer to the mirror and reaches out to grab the edges, pulling it in close to her face. She does not look happy. At all.]

Hey! I don't know how this thing is supposed to work, but somebody out there had better tell me who this Queen is and where I can find her. I'm the Avatar and if she thinks she can just snatch me and put me in a dress? Oh, she has got another thing coming.

║Really awesome guitar playing is shredding it's way down the vines! The singing, well, it's could easily be called pretty bombastic! The pitch is perfect and the notes carry like woah, but the tone itself is heavy and pretty sad. It's a voice that hasn't been heard, belonging to a face that hasn't been seen in a while.║

❝With all the times that I've dissed you,
who would have thought that I would miss you?❞

❝Not me, not me!
I never thought that you being so gone would leave me feeling empty!❞

❝Oh, Princess why did you have to go and make a mess of me?!
I can't go back to pretending that I couldn't care less..because..because..❞

║Wait for it....║

"AUGH!"

║Yeah, suddenly the playing and singing both stop and are replaced with random notes and disgruntled grunts!║

*Action*

*Kanako is skipping in field field of flowers, with a look of pure bliss on her face. She doesn't look like a person that trapped in a world that she doesn't know with no means of escape.*

Oh, thank you mother in heaven! Oh thank you God! Oh thank you Queen of Hearts! I have never been so happy in all my life, and it's all thanks to being in the gardens!

*She falls onto her back, and starts rolling back and forth over the flowers, squealing with glee.*

[ The image in the mirror is unclear, wavering faintly, as if viewed through water or a heat haze. And for a few moments there's nothing to see, only featureless gray. The sound of a woman's singing can be distantly heard, almost chanting, in a language that's almost but not quite familiar. The very astute may recognize it as the voice of the Queen.

Eventually, the singing stops, and the mirror clears... somewhat. The Queen is visible in it, but there's still that heat-haze waver overlaid on her image. The look in her eyes is worried and perhaps a little lost. ]

It's almost spring, isn't it, my dears?

[ Her expression seems to brighten slightly, for just a moment, but then falls again, and her gaze drifts away from the mirror. ]

Yes, it is. I can tell. I can always tell. Something doesn't feel right...

I'm forgetting something again. I forgot it before. A word. A name?

What was it?

[ She frowns, intensely distraught, and there's nothing at all comical in her expression. ]

Help me remember, darlings. It's very important.

[ And she seems quite certain of this fact -- though a moment later, she shakes her head, looks back to the mirror. ]

But not as important as keeping you here with me. Bringing more of you to help me make this place real.

Otherwise...


Otherwise I'd be so lonely.

[ She smiles, tremulously, and touches the mirror fondly. ]

You're all such good company. I don't know what I'd do without you...

[ And after a few moments, her attention drifts again, and the singing begins anew just before the recording ends. ]



[ OOC: March's plot is officially beginning. For more details, see this post. The Queen will be responding to comments here only sporadically. ]

[Sora's going to pop up really quickly, grinning.]

I promised cooking classes, right? Well, anyone who wants to learn, meet me at the spaceship tomorrow morning! There's enough room there for quite a few people to learn. And when we're done, we can all share!

[Sora is willing to provide directions, too!]

Also, um... Does anyone here want to go exploring? I know I've been here a year, and that I've had time to do a lot of exploring, but... It's always more fun when you do it with other people.

[Hi, Gardens! It's Feferi. She's looking pretty perturbed at the moment.]

One short question for everyone.

I think it's better if one is...intimate with someone else for the first time when you have strong feelings towards the other. SOMEONE is claiming it's just another option in a ruler's playbook.

What do you all think?

[ There's a very quiet 'uwah' followed by a moment of silence. This is followed by another sound of admiration, but since this is audio, it's hard to say who the voice might belong to, much less what it is that is so intriguing. Thankfully, the person responsible is about to provide some commentary. ]

How curious… [ Here she starts to fade in and out a little. ] Such a thing… it makes one feel like a princess. [ When she gets closer, the sound of fabric rustling can be heard. ] Is this being spirited away? I have never experienced such a thing! [ Now she sounds like she's getting more excited. ] Is it that I am the heroine now? [ Now she seems to be moving away, because the sound is getting more muffled again. She can still be heard talking to herself every so often though, and further 'uwah!'s and 'aaa's can be heard intermittently. ] ... so beautiful...

Aa! Am I addressing someone? Please excuse my rudeness. My name is Japan. [ More rustling can be heard, because it's just like her to bow even when she can't be seen. ] May I ask... to whom I am speaking...?

[Not even watching the vines twist and twine together, tuning into the new arrival that had already been very much distracted in The Gardens.

She was breathing. Living. Her testing clothes being taken away from her was replaced by a dress, but the metal collar was still wrapped around her neck.

It was all confusing.

She couldn't understand it, sitting there staring at the flowers that she so badly wanted to see all around her with a shocked expression on her face.]

Haine?

[The first word that stumbled from her mouth was barely even audible. Lily stood up, realizing the mirror that had been recording her, her once surprised expression had easily adjusted to a gentle smile.]

Hello? My name is Lily and um...

[She glances back at the flowers.]

This place is really pretty! I also got a letter, but I don't know how to read it... can someone help me?

[Claire waves a little when the mirror appears. She looks a little different today....namely because instead of blue, her hair is bright pink. But she doesn't seem bothered by this at all.]

Hello, everyone--now that things have settled down again, I'd like to extend an invitation. But first...has anyone seen Miss Canada lately? We agreed to do this together, but I haven't been able to get in touch with her.

Some time ago she made an ice skating rink, and it would be nice to all skate together before it gets warm again, don't you think? I've made some refreshments, too.


[ooc: and the log is now up!]