P-P-Pirates?! I scoff at the very idea! Surely we are not so gullible as to be bought in by their ilk!

Tis a trap, I'll presume. No good can come from trusting a Pirate Queen.

P-please! Please quiet down! I am at my wit's end! I beseach you! Speak your need! Who is your mother? Where are they? Tis certainly not me!

-She sounds desperate.-

Agrias! Help me!

[ 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. ]

[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?

It is lately I find myself curious... I have heard many a strange and curious tale of your homes. But a question burns at my mind, one that cannot be settled so simply.

Where I come from, the Kingdom of Ivalice, we exist as a monarchy with a feudal system. Land and property are alotted to noble houses, and they in turn pledge their allegiance to the crown... no matter who holds it. This is the only system of governing I have ever known... And yet I have been told of other methods.

So, I may ask... to what powers are you beholden in your world? Governments? The Church? Who controls the masses? Who pacifies them, and cares for their needs... or fails to, in any extent?

[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!]

[There's a sigh emanating from the other end of the vine.] ...I'm talking into a plant. Great. Wish I could say this was the weirdest thing that ever happened to me, but what the fuck ever.

May as well just make myself comfortable until I wake up or the cavalry gets here. Whichever comes first. You guys have fun with your whole hippie commune thing you got going here.

[There's one more annoyed grunt, and the distinct sound of a flower being crushed before cutting out. She's not in the most talkative mood, clearly.]

How can one enjoy this holiday? [She sniffs a rose, careful of the thorns.] My fiancee is nowhere to be seen, my butler is absent and I have no connection to the Queen of this place.

[Gathering her skirts delicately, Ciela sits down beside a fountain and dips the rose's petals into the water. Slowly, she draws a pattern. If one looks closely enough, they will see a heart in the ripples.]

I must make do, of course. But the situation is disappointing. [A sigh escapes her parted lips.] Her Majesty must have some reason for bringing us together. All females...hmmm.

[It hasn't occurred to her that females might delight in the holiday together.]

[The vine has suddenly decided to tune in to its newest arrival!

... a redhead that seems to be sleeping comfortably on the ground. So comfortably that she is actually snoring and... is that drool on the side of her mouth? Yes. Yes it is.

Wait, it looks like she’s finally going to wake up!]

Don’t you worry anymore! I, Hong Meiling, will not let anything happen to this land I love!

[Or it could be that she’s decided to talk in her sleep.]

As long as I remain on guard, no harm will befall Gensokyo and its residents.

[What is she even dreaming about? Must be something pretty exciting, given how she’s raising her fist in the air. Fortunately, she wakes up before embarrassing herself any further.

She sits up, eyes half open, looking positively groggy.]

... Huh?

[Meiling finally begins to realize that something isn’t quite right.]

This isn’t the mansion. [An astounding observation.] Where is...?

Mistress? Lady Sakuya?

Where did you all go?!

[Looking more and more worried now.]

I-I wasn’t sleeping or slacking off! Honest!

[... right.]

Why am I wearing this dress?

[ooc: tags will be slower than normal for me but I shall get to them as soon as I can!]

[Hello, Gardeners. It's not so unusual seeing a new person on the Vine, is it? It's usually the first stop on one's "figure out what even the fuck" tour, after all. What's probably less common is seeing a new person that... doesn't really seem confused. At all.

Rather? This one just seems irritable as hell.

She stares uncompromisingly into the recording node... frond... thing, holds up her greeting scroll, and says only two words... although, has a response so brief ever sounded so exasperated? I wonder.]

I decline.

-The vine picks up a girl laying among the flowers. The scroll has been left somewhere beside her, and seems untouched. Furthermore, the position she is in seems hardly natural. Not like someone resting, but rather... she had fallen there. And, in fact, the more one looks at her, the more it appears she's not alive at all... At least for a few moments before her chest starts to move.

With a loud gasp and cry, she sits up, clutching at the space just below her ribs but above her stomach. She breathes heavily, a look of complete shock in her eyes.-

I'm... alive? But how... No wound remains, either... Not even a cut in my gown...

... These are not the ruins... Could it be God has delivered me unto heaven? Impossible... I deserve no such grace...

-She quickly moves to her feet, looking around. She is seemingly completely unaware she's being recorded.-

Hello! Is anyone there!?

... What trickery is this place?