Hello.

[Her voice is faint, whispering and hoarse, but it is usually that way, just not always quite so soft. Zinc, pale-skinned and dark-haired, is sitting on the front porch of her little house, one robot cat curled against her side, and a robot bug in her lap.

She's watching the birds in her courtyard wistfully.]

It has been... difficult again. I heard screaming. Sometimes, I wonder... why the Queen lets us be hurt, if she says she loves us. [Large brown eyes blink, the way someone would if they were pushing back tears, but Zinc can't cry.] She can't stop it. Love hurts. It will always hurt.

[That's cheerful, Zinc. She's quiet for a long moment, watching birds peck peanut butter and seeds off the pine cones she prepared.]

I hope everyone is... doing better, today.

[She rests her cheek against the Cait's head sadly and doesn't say anything else.]

[Here, have a "new" arrival. Her scarred visage may or may not look familiar to you, but boy does she look pissed.]

This again? I thought I was done with- [She makes a motion to encompass, well, all of the Gardens.] -this ridiculous place. What possible reason could warrent me coming back?

[A sigh.]

[Then, as an after thought:]

Are Kiriko and my house still here?

I want to breathe. I am tired of being cold and empty. How much longer.

[Kariya is a little more willing to show her face on the mirror now, but her hood is pulled up, and she turns so the right side of her face is facing the mirror, the slack, ravaged left side only slightly visible.

She's sitting outside, near the Pagoda, with a red Chow Chow sitting beside her. The dog tries to climb onto her lap, but Kariya gently holds her back, smiling.]

Hello, Hiro. Down, girl. It's all right, we can play later. [The dog is much stronger than she is, and she exhausts rather easily, but she does like playing.]

I'm Kariya, and this is my friend Hiro. She's a good dog. [The Chow Chow pants happily, standing by. She seems to have assigned herself Kariya-helping duty.]

I already know some of you here, but not all of you. I've been living at the Pagoda. I think that's what it's called. [She gestures toward the building in the background.] So if you need me, this is where I am. I like it here. It's quiet.

[She pauses for a moment or two to breathe deeply.]

I don't want to bother anyone, but... It's hard for me to walk sometimes. Is there something that could carry me around? The ground here isn't even, and I'm not sure how well the wheelchairs I know would work. I don't have any soil, and I don't know how to make something new. I don't mind if it's magic or technology. If you could help me, I'd be thankful.

[From this video, you may already recognize the inside of Zinc's house. The white walls, the large windows, the cold floors. The vine slithers its way up the stairs. A place that you perhaps have not seen before is her bathroom. A large space that gets sun throughout most of the day, the tub dominates the center and there are several very comfortable chairs beneath one window. Bottles of pretty smelling perfumes line most of the available spaces, side tables and cabinets. It's a cute picture, until the sounds of retching and crying infiltrate.

Zinc is on the floor, leaned over the edge of the tub as her shoulders shake. Be glad you don't have a view of what comes out of her; it isn't pretty.

Worse still, her voice hoarse and frequently interrupted by her diaphragm spasming, she is saying something,]

My mother gave... gave me a Bichon when I was nine. The gardener ran him over. On the mower. There were... cats. They died. One got trapped, on the roof. One got Sepsis, and [Hrk.] vomited, to death. My brother's iguana, I poisoned. He cried. I f-fucked his girlfriends, and his mistresses. He cried. Sabotaged his projects, and his car. He cried. He smacked me, once. I laughed at him.

[She's crying now.]

For my birthday, when I was... I was eleven. I asked for my father to throw my mother out. He laughed, she cried. I hated her. Such a cow.

[She doesn't notice the vine winding its way up the bathtub to get a better look at her face. She looks clammy, waxy, her grey skin drawn tight and shiny over her skeletons, her eyes more sunken then usual, dark hair in tangles. She jerks again, and what comes out of her mouth is not insubstantial and the color is an extremely unnatural green.]

I watched a boy die. Thirteen, he was eaten. I watched. It was fascinating. I didn't help. I met Isaac then. He had me in his car, he was never very good.

[She puts her head down, resting her forehead against the cool porcelain while continues to make those crying noises, no tears coming out. She's silent for a good long moment before it starts again,]

The Bichon's name was Johannes... I don't remember the boy's...


[[ooc; So. This is why Zinc generally says that she can't eat anything but raw meat. It makes her violently ill! And what she ate was a chocolate chip cookie from the bakery, so she is also recounting her sordid childhood for you. Wee. Also, T/Th I have class aaaaall day long, so I may not be back until late.]]

[ Today Miss Zinc is sitting at her kitchen table, surrounded by an assortment of empty jars. There's a rather bemused expression on her face as she asks someone out of sight, ]

Are you sure?

[ A voice that one may recognize replies cheerfully, ]

Aye lass, you just stuff the blasted things in there with a little sprinkle'a salt.

[ Zinc looks unconvinced and turns to the mirror instead. ]

I wanted... to store food, for everyone? But the library is... [ What's the word? ] Useless.

I think... we need help.


[[ooc; Totally late, but Reeve left Cait with Zinc, so here is this \o/]]

[The feed opens to reveal Gavril, as jovially creepy as ever,  in a state of focus. Silently willing her transformation power to reshape her the basic structure of her body. Primarily playing with the size of her limbs and occasionally shaping her head into the terrifying visage of a monstrous crocodile-like creature, as she often did in her largest of forms, it is a macabre show of shifting flesh that makes a horrible sound similar to a mixture of breaking bones and slime oozing down the side of a smooth surface. Soon after she finishes, returning her body to it's normal state and showing her favorite, shark-like, grin to the mirror for good measure.]

You girls enjoy the show? I can do that shit with every part of my body, if you catch my drift. So I thought I'd take requests, sound good?

-The vine unfurls, the image displayed being a rather distraught Akira.-

I went to investigate the missing birds. I wanted to ask Mugi if she'd come with. Wasn't home. No big.

But when I actually get to the place I was going to scope out, I found a bottle in a tree. Inside... well...

-Akira holds up the bottle, pulling out its contents. Rolled up in the bottle are two pieces of parchment, lined for sheet music. The first page is a letter written in a neat cursive, with the words laid out in the space between the blocks for notation. It makes makes the spacing kind of awkward.-

( ooc cut for image )

-The second page is a page of haphazardly sketched musical notation (meant for piano, as those familiar will notice). There are lyrics, too, which are awfully cheery when you consider the fact the author was kidnapped! The title is "Dreams Dancing in the Clouds". Yeah, there's no questioning that this is authentic.-

... Is anyone else missing?

[[ ooc: Transcibed:

Dear Madam:

The view of the Gardens is breathtaking from above!
There is so much to see and learn, even here.
I am being treated well. There are others with me.
I wish that I could share it with you all, so I have
attached something special to that end!
I hope you are doing well.

--Tsumugi ]]

[Good morning, Garden. Zinc is in the small rectangular courtyard of her little white house. She has a basket at her hip, plucking down the strange little fruits from its branches. They look like apples, but you may remember that's not quite right.

When she realizes she has the vines attention she pauses, looking pensive for a moment.]

Where have the birds gone?

[She is up frequently in the early morning, she is used to hearing them outside. She had even made them feeders, but they are all empty. She gazes at them sadly.]

[The video turns on and there is a bronze skinned lady with long silver hair. Her face is quite close to the screen, inspecting it.]

Hmm, and interesting way of communication. I wonder...

[She taps the screen, then pulls back]

Ah well. Greetings ladies and more ladies. It seems the Queen has invited me to these gardens. My name is Urd, and I am looking forward to making special memories with everyone here. Is there anything you gals want to know about me?

I do have a few questions about this place. Is there anyone here with high magical abilities here?

[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.]]

[The Vine opens to show a young girl, one with short, bright red hair and glasses. Her white shift is entirely too big for her, and she looks at the mirror in complete confusion.]

Where is this? I don't get it...

[She pauses, thinking.]

And the dress is too big. If fairies are going to give you clothes, they might not make them so big.

[Yes, she thinks it's fairy doing.]

[[ooc: Grell has returned back to the Gardens, and ended up with a wild card after wandering about to the wild places. She is currently six years old, and has no memories of being here before.]]

[Well. Hello there, Garden. Out in the sun, Zinc is standing beneath a little tree that the clever may recognize as the strange little apple tree Zinc has been tending for several months now. Excitingly enough, its flowers have been replaced by little red apples. Zinc reaches up to pluck one, turning it over in her hands curiously. Her eyes flicker up to the mirror.]

This... is the first one.

[She continues to eye it warily for a moment before finally bring it to her mouth, nibbling at it uncertainly. However, it doesn't take long for her ashen face to light up, smiling.]

That is so strange.

[But she giggles anyway, and seems to forget that the mirror is watching her at all she devours her snack eagerly.]

[ A giant, pleasant-looking mansion, loaded with an endless supply of tea? Mugi was not dreaming; she was in heaven.

Right now, the girl is standing at a counter in the Victorian manse's elegant kitchen, several containers of tea stacked in front of her. She is clutching a caddy spoon to her chest, the other hand cupping her cheek. Is she blushing... about tea? She is.

When she notices the mirror she makes a brief, startled sound but smiles all the same. ] Ah! Goodness. Hello there. I'm sorry to be calling again like this but... I have a dilemma.

[ Mugi brings her hand down to the top of one tin. ] Earl Grey.... [ Then the next. ] Irish breakfast... [ And another after another. ] Ginger, lemon grass, peach, hibiscus, ... I can't possibly decide! [ Tea is serious business, and she is having serious Tea Overload over here. ]

I do not know the name of this building, but if you seek the pastel-colored manor, I will be waiting inside. I will be glad to prepare some tea for anyone who might have some advice for me! [ Yes, that's all this was for. Mugi was calling out because she wanted to make tea for someone. Anyone. ]

Good evening.

[Ky smiles at the Vine, polite and distant.]

Is there anything I can do around here that would be productive?

Besides petting the cats or building simply for the sake of building...

[As a police officer she was used to being far more busy. Not that she wished for more crime, but she did need a better way to occupy herself than just going through the library. The contents of which were...questionable. She'd gone exploring, but in the places where she felt she might learn something from her senses tingled with the threat of unnecessary danger. That hadn't stopped her, but she wanted something more.]

Alternatively, does anyone wish to talk about the world they come from? Or what they do there?

[As a temporary distraction it might mean something, and perhaps she would learn a useful fact or two.]

( And filtered to Dizzy )

 [The sound of something ripping and tearing soft tissue from bone in a rather quick succession followed by the gnashing of teeth again an unknown material echoes through the vine for several minutes. Though there is no imagine to accompany the symphony of gratuitous and disgusting noise, the rather brutal nature of noise itself would be more then enough to unsettle the stomach and minds of an average person. One would normally attribute such actions to a bear or other large predator, but such speculation would quickly be put to rest as the voice of a certain zombie-girl sounds through the feed, filled with a dejected tone laced with the endless pangs of a desperate hunger.]

If you girlies can hear this... I need something and am willing to trade anything for it. If that sounds good, send me a message, we'll work something out.

[Kiriko appears doing what Kiriko does best, getting angry.]

What the hell?! What is wrong with this place?!

I put up with this tediously boring paradise of yours. I did what I was told as to not offend our magnificent Queen. I made myself useful as a chemist. But this?! Someone already violently insane becoming even worse? Is this a common occurrence?!

[She's talking, of course, of Black Jack's little incident a couple of days ago.]

I've sat quietly long enough! I have a job back home that can't be replaced! Those people who disappear from time to time - I'd finally like my chance to join them!

[And to conclude indignantly:]

As for those of you who didn't listen when I called Black Jack a dangerous charlatan, I suppose you wish you'd believed me, now!

[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.

[Zinc is out in the walled-in courtyard of her home. In her hand she's holding a big green plastic watering can, upturning its contents carefully over a young tree, heavy with pale pink flowers. The tree is very cute, but Zinc doesn't seem overly pleased. In fact, she eventually complains sullenly,]

Christine is gone. I... had wanted to hatch her...


[[ooc; definitely still on hiatus, but I need something to do between assignments ;; iluqoh]]