+ The Time Has Come, the Time Is Now +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: Everyone in Wonderland!
Where: The chessboard hills
When: Monday, June 11, all day starting at 10:00 AM
Rating: R for (sometimes excessive) violence
Summary: The Queen of Hearts has declared war and the time for battle has come.
The Story:
♥ ICly, the Real Things who will act as pieces volunteered and are led by the Red Queen. The Mirrors were chosen by the Queen of Hearts without being given a choice. The Queen of Hearts announced her choices to her Mirrors very directly, with an order to show up at 10:00 AM on the chessboard, ready to fight. The Red Queen announced her choices more politely, but just as firmly, with a text message sent out over the network listing her pieces and requesting their assistance to protect their fellow Real Things. Characters were not ICly able to respond to this message.

♥ Those pieces who choose to obey the summons will have time to gather any items or weapons they might want to have with them, within reason. Those who don't heed the summons will find themselves suddenly and instantly transported to their square on the chessboard when 10:00 AM rolls around. They will arrive with anything that was on their person at the time, as well as one weapon (whatever it would be normal for them to use). Likewise, any spectators who are not in or around the stands by 10:00 AM will find themselves transported there.

♥ Each player sports an armband, white for the Real Things and Black for the Mirrors, with the shape of their assigned chess piece embroidered in the opposite color. Royalty pieces wear crowns indicative of their status. Should a pawn be promoted to queen, a crown will appear on their head.

♥ Pieces will find that they can't leave their assigned spots until they're told what square to move to by either the Queen of Hearts or the Red Queen. And if they refuse to move, after a couple of moments, an unseen force will scoot them along to their new space.

♥ When threading moves on the board, please find the appropriate top-level under which to comment! It might be helpful to label your thread with which move/encounter you're playing out.

♥ Players on the board can not communicate with those in the stands and vice versa (other than by jumping around and flailing, I guess). However, players on the board can communicate directly with those in squares adjacent to them or with any challenger whose square they share. Since some pieces have a lot of down time, feel free to have them chat with others on the board while they're waiting around.

♥ Directions from the Queens can be assumed. Go ahead and play out moves without waiting for a comment to officially announce them.

♥ The plotting and info post for this log is here.

♥ For your convenience, here are links to the thread headers:

The Donation Box
Pre-Game
The Game - Moves 1-20
The Game - Moves 21-40
The Game - Moves 41-60
The Game - Moves 61-80
The Game - Moves 81-100
The Game - Moves 101-117
The Holding Area
The Stands

Have fun!

Comments

+ The Holding Area +

[vitaelamorte]

The holding room looks much like a typical tea room, with a couple of exceptions. While it will still give out drinks and snacks, it has no windows or doors. Instead, each wall is equipped with a large screen showing different views of the chessboard, like any major sporting event might have. Captured pieces can watch the rest of the match and interact with each other, though they will have no way of interacting with anyone outside.

Mirror Rocket

[procyonmotor]

[Mirror Rocket arrives in the holding area fit to be tied. Beaten by a kid, really?

And, of course, he's aggravated enough to be ranting about it ten seconds into his arrival.]

That was a bloody fluke! I did more for this war than any of you sods, and don't you forget it.

[If you want to point and laugh (though he still has his gun), he'll be stewing and watching the rest of the match with a sullen expression, and he'll be extremely pissed when the Queen of Hearts loses.]

[jivitadana]

[Minato knew to expect some kind of reaction after he had been watching the screens and seeing Mirror Rocket be captured himself. All good things had to come to an end, he supposed.

He went over to where the Mirror was and it was true that Mirror Rocket did do a lot for the war.]

You did your best.

[procyonmotor]

[Rocket whirls, bushy tail swishing in agitation.]

Yeah? Those're some words comin' from somebody I just killed five minutes ago.

[His fallen opponent being sincere?? Does not compute.]

Mirror Snow - OTA

[evilsnow]

[ As soon as she lands in the holding area, Mirror Snow angrily launches a fireball at the wall. She should not have gone down that way, so early in the game, and she's very, very angry. ]

I refuse to serve another queen, ever again. Wonderland has another thing coming if it thinks I'll ever bow to any royalty here.

[emotiveness]

[Drizella lasts much longer than Snow, a point that likely irritates her even more by the time the other woman arrives in holding. She drops in, a little shaky on her feet, before she glances around and rolls her eyes at the scorch marks on the wall.]

Why am I not surprised you're already setting the furniture on fire.

[evilsnow]

[ Everyone that lasts longer than Snow irritates her, and she looks over at Drizella with a scowl. ]

You'll watch your tongue unless you want to become part of the burning upholstery.

Mirror tony| O T A

[overtook]

[ he's adding something out of a small silver flask to his coffee.

so maybe his "real" self has given up alcohol but not tony. he takes his coffee irish.

other than that, he doesn't seem to be too interested in the rest of the match. maybe his heart wasn't really in it, maybe his goal today has been different. ]

when are we allowed to leave and not be bored anymore?

[ just asking. ]

tim wright | ota | i'll match your formatting

[postictal]

[The abrupt shock of no longer being shot through and screaming shouldn't be as familiar as it is, but when Tim slumps, shivering, in the corner of the room, it's more with an air of pronounced weariness than anything else. He curls his knees up to his chest, wraps his arms around them, spends the first thirty minutes breathing his way through it.]

[He doesn't make much of an effort to interact with the rest of those in the holding room. Mostly, he narrows his stare onto the screen, knuckles blanching around his knees.]

[It's not hard to parse that his attention is fixed almost exclusively on Jay.]

Come on...come on...

[Don't let this be for nothing.]

[rightcall]

( clementine is no longer unconscious but she is still wet when she shows up in the holding room, dripping water on the floor under her feet. she walks forward until she finds him. tim. she saw him get shot to hell. she gets in wonderland people come back from dying, but it's been- she never saw anyone die like that and come back from it still human, still themselves. she hated it, watching him die and not being able to do anything, screaming from her spot, cursing and fighting against an invisible wall keeping her in place. no matter how she railed against it.

she hesitates.

she waits. she watches, reassuring herself that he is real and he is alive. and what she saw was not permanent. he is watching the match still, and she knows who he is watching. she worries too about what jay will go through, that he might get captured too.

she swallows thickly through the feeling clogging her throat. she settles down beside him, near him. )

Tim, hey.

[postictal]

[It takes him a moment to focus on her, his eyes slightly glazed, settling on her - and then he stops sitting curled up, straightens, bolt upright. Thank god. Thank god. Didn't go look for her, did you? Didn't go looking - just selfishly sat and waited, and fucking waited.]

[What the hell is wrong with you?]

[His throat's gummed up. Has to work the words out.]

Clem - jesus. Are you okay?

Jolyne Kujo

[uncoils]

[Well, that was fucked up, but at least she's not...]

Oh man, what if I'm dead and this is like that place from Beetlejuice?

[Except there's no line, and she's not being given a Handbook for the Recently Deceased, so she's probably not dead. But she was dead, so that's...something she'll worry about later. First she needs to talk to Josuke, maybe he's here too.

And man, that Beetlejuice joke did not lighten the situation or make things suck less like she hoped it would. Damn it.]

[A, Private to Josuke]

[And once she's found him, really all she can do is ask a stupid question.]

Hey, uh, you okay?

[She's guessing he's about as okay with dying on the chessboard as she was, but starting a postmortem conversation is definitely not something she has experience doing.]

[B, after all that, ota!]

[When she's done talking to Josuke, she'll grab a drink and honestly, try not to watch the game, but it's hard not to. But she'll mostly try to keep to herself while doing that. It's not like she doesn't want to talk, she definitely will if she's approached, it's just that she's not really sure what to say at this point? “I hope we win?” “Here's hoping no one else dies in some fucked up manner and ends up in here?” Not really good ways to start a conversation. So she'll mostly keep quiet and let someone else figure out what to say.]

[hairdont]

[In the end, he'd been taken down by a talking raccoon with a gun. If it hadn't ended the way it did, it might be a funny story but... even knowing he'd come back, and having come back immediately in the holding area doesn't make it any better. It feels wrong, like he's making a mockery of Reimi's fate.

He'd tried to avoid watching the rest of the game, tried to focus on getting through the rest of it but when it was Jolyne's turn to fight he couldn't look away. He really wishes he could have. She finds him before he can find her, and he looks miserable, his pompadour flagging and being left in that state.]

I, uh. [He doesn't know what to say.] I don't think so. You?

[uncoils]

Fuck no.

[Gonna be a while before she gets over it.]

Though I'm impressed. Not every queen would ask how her pawns were doing.

[This is definitely her avoiding talking about how much death sucks.]

[jivitadana]

[Another thirty moves or so, and now here Jolyne was. He had hoped that no one else had to be capture so brutally, but, well, as he thought, here they both were. And most everyone else here. For his part though, he hadn't killed anyone. But that didn't make it any better either.

So Minato grabbed a drink for himself, just a bottle of water, and went over to sit with her.]

Welcome back.

[It's a greeting, as if she were coming back home or something like it, or coming back from the dead. It was half a joke too, if just to lighten the mood a bit, but he was more than aware of the gravity of the situation too.]

[uncoils]

Yeah. Thanks.

[Her tone's a little flat, but she's still kind of glad to see him. It's incredibly screwed up given everything, but it makes things...well not better, but not that much worse either. It's a mess, it really is.]

How are you holding up after...

[Being killed by a gun wielding raccoon? Also god, Mirror Rocket, stop killing all her friends, it's a pain in the ass.]

...all that?

[There's the better way to put it.]

shepard | ota

[normandysbest]

i. upon entry/post move 28

[She shows up in the holding area with an uncoordinated whump on the ground and a rush of breath, hands reaching up to grip her throat almost too hard. Fuck. One wrong step, once too close, and everyone fucking saw--

Shepard punches the floor, hard enough that people can hear it, and unaware there's people at all.]

Fuck!

[She's breathing a bit too heavy still as she stands, trying to orient herself, but otherwise still very, very angry.]

ii. rest of match

[Eventually, Shepard moves to a corner, keeping her back pressed against the wall. She won't be snuck up on, and with other mirrors around, it's best she keep her hand near a trigger finger. But she'll watch. And wait. And hope for the best.]

ii

[forwearemany]

(And well, at some point, Legion's mirror will saunter on over, like they didn't also just get their ass handed to them.)

Hey! Well if it isn't Shepard-Failure!

(Ugh that voice. Falsely cheerful and horrifically discordant. Even if they weren't an absolute prick, it'd be an offense worth punching them over.)

So tell me: how upset do you bet my dumb real is right now? Worried? Crying? Well I mean, they can't really cry but...

[normandysbest]

[Ah yes. That motherfucker. What a tool.

She rolls her eyes, raising an eyebrow to them.]

I dunno, they just got to see you get your ass handed to you, so maybe not so disappointed.

[She does wish she could send them some sort of message to let them know she's alright, though.]

ii

[mypartnerintime]

[Seeing Shepard go down during the game- and so nearby- was a real scare. It still wasn't entirely clear what happened to "pieces" that were captured. Nothing good, Max expected.

As it turns out, it's not that bad. So far. Max scans the holding area warily, deliberately ducking away from Mirrors, until she finds Shepard standing in a corner.]

Hey.

[Her voice is dry and tired.]

[normandysbest]

[She hates that she has to sit and watch this. Sure, she enjoy watching Josuke's revenge- plus Mirror Legion going down. But she was already uncomfortable with Max even being there, much less seeing-- all of this. So Max shows up, and Shepard immediately shifts, and takes the other girl in her arms in a hug.]

Are you okay?

ii

[hairdont]

[He'd been the one to capture Cullen's Mirror, to beat him into the ground with Crazy Diamond until he couldn't get back up. He'd had every intention of giving it his all, but the display that had been made of Shepard's capture pushed him further than he was planning to go.

Then came his own death at the barrel of Mirror Rocket's gun, dumping him in the holding area with the rest of them. Josuke doesn't seek Shepard out immediately, needing time to deal with his own capture since it's his first death (even if it doesn't actually count, but) but as the match continues he's... somewhat okay.]

I don't know if it helps, but he didn't get away with it.

[Honestly? He has no idea what to actually say. But he's trying.]

Lorca | OTA

[fortune_cookies]

[He lands in the holding area, flat on the side of his face. That was unexpected to say the least, and it gave him one too many flashbacks to that damn Klingon prison. At least he won't have to deal with all the bad lighting.]

Ow!

[Eventually he claims a spot on the floor and leans against the wall, keeping to himself and keeping quiet. He wants to see what happens with the mirrors and the reals in here. How many of them really wanted to fight? To be safe his phaser is in his hand.]

Monika | OTA

[255000255000255]

[ Monika appears in the room with her arms covering her head. Then she slowly lowers them, looking around. Was this...Wonderland purgatory?

She raises her mask up, noticing the screen. Oh, okay. So this suddenly went all Hunger Games, then. She still wasn't sure if she'd died, but...

Her lips press together and she gingerly takes a seat, watching one of the screens. Even with her limited chess knowledge, she sensed they were in endgame territory.

She prayed Souji would make it to the end. ]

[jivitadana]

[The game had gone on for so long. But it looked like they were close to the end. Minato hadn't really had a chance to talk to anyone out there on the field; it seemed easier to talk to them once they were all here in this room where they had some distance away from whatever happened out there.

One by one Minato watched people be captured or capture. It was really a lot to take in, but he wanted to watch. It seemed best to remember it all, make it seem like whoever was being captured wasn't alone.

Minato slowly approached Monika now, thinking it was a bit direct to just sit down next to her, but he did it anyway.]

I'm sorry.

[That she had to go through all of that, that her experience now out here was ruined by a chess game.]