Would you speak with a queen? Or a cat? (AUDIENCE HALL)

[twinverses]

Need something? Want to complain more directly to your cute hosts or maybe you want to bargain with your memories? Maybe you just have a favor. Regardless, this is the place to do it! Just knock on the Audience Hall's door or just call for the Alices and they'll answer.

Of course, if you want to speak with a particular Alice just note that in your toplevel as long with the date and rough time it's happening. They can be contacted IC-ly throughout the day.

For the final week, in person meetings with the Storyteller (formerly known as the Cat) aren't possible. Alice, obviously, isn't talking to anyone either. However! The Storyteller can be called to talk throughout the castle so just say where you're yelling at her from.

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Week 4, Tuesday - Queen Alice

[xxxx_me]

[Sometime after people have dispersed, he'll come find her for a talk!]

[twinverses]

[The Queen is in the chamber and it looks like he caught her at teatime. She brightens at his presence.]

Oh, Allen! Do you want some tea?

[xxxx_me]

Oh, um... sure. What kind is it?

[He's reasonably sure Queen Alice wouldn't poison him.]

[twinverses]

It's just Earl Grey but I put a lot of sugar in it.

[She's at her little table in the middle of the audience chamber even if... it looks out of place with how messed up the room is right now.]

I'll let you put your own sugar in, though, if you want any. [At least she's drinking it herself.] What is it?

[xxxx_me]

[He will go sit with her then!]

I wanted to ask you about Cheshire. You said that she's been different lately - did you ever get to ask her about the stuff she told you, but you forgot about?

[twinverses]

[She frowns at her tea as she drinks. Her shoulders shrug.]

She refused to tell me much. Just what everyone found. Something about it not being important. We shouldn't be able to keep secrets like this from each other!

[xxxx_me]

That's weird...

[He'll take a sip of his own tea, unsweetened, as he thinks.]

And she keeps talking about how the game has to continue, and how it's too early for us to get answers because it's a story. Do you know why she's like that?

[twinverses]

Stories and rhymes are like that. You want to get to the end but you also don't.

[She mulls on this.]

No, I'd never say stuff like that so she shouldn't either. I know why the game has to continue now or at least I think I do but... she could just tell you that.

[xxxx_me]

Can you tell me now, since she won't?

[twinverses]

[She stops. She looks down.]

... I dunno how it's doing it but I think... It's making me feel better. Stronger. I could barely stay up all day when we started this game and now... I can go out the audience hall. I was outside when Veronica attacked me.

[xxxx_me]

[...Okay, this is a wild shot in the dark, but he talked about it with Nagisa so like:]

...Does she want us to die because it somehow makes you stronger?

[IS SHE EATING THEIR SOULS-]

[twinverses]

[SOUL VORE DOLL]

...I think so. I talked with--well, someone. I... don't like the idea, either.

[She doesn't want to eat souls!]

[xxxx_me]

Alice...

This is wrong. You shouldn't- you shouldn't kill people for that.

["You eat souls, too" Cheshire had said, in the Dream. The animals they ate for their meals had souls too, after all... But he pushes that thought aside.]

How do you stop this?

[twinverses]

I know. I know it's horrible, that this isn't... right. That it's selfish to make decisions like that for other people.

[She's not looking at him. Yet these words don't seem unfamiliar to her either.]

I don't know how to stop it. The worst part is... I don't want to go back to where I was before. I don't want to die yet. That's horrid of me but I don't know if I could stop it if I knew how.

[xxxx_me]

[It's logical, he knows. Nobody wants to die. Or at least, no one that he knows of. But it's still a slap in the face, and the hurt is evident in his expression.]

...

So you're just... going to let us all die for you...?

[twinverses]

...

[She slouches. She knows that it's selfish. Wrong. Horrid.]

I can't do it myself. I won't stop you if... you find a way but I don't know if I can do it.

[xxxx_me]

[Tears prick at his eyes again. It's probably far from the last time, if all this is anything to go by.]

Is... is she really doing something with our souls? The demons in the Dream...

...

They... ate the souls of children. I'm pretty sure of it. I-is that... what she's doing to us...?

[twinverses]

...

[She hates this so much?? She slumps.]

I think... using them to heal me, somehow. I didn't ask her to. I was ready to move on.

[xxxx_me]

[That Cat... she really is...

He just sits in his seat, hands shaking in his lap. The tea is forgotten, left to go cold as he begins to cry.]

[twinverses]

[The chair is practically shoved over as she stands up.]

H-hey, you don't need to cry... you can blame me, okay? It's okay to be mad at me.

[xxxx_me]

[He sniffles, shaking his head even as he begins to sob.]

A-Alice...

We need to stop her. I can't- I don't want more people to end up like her. And- And the longer I stay here, my friends--