+ 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

Sans and Mirror Sans

[punful]

Sans

A: Early Game

Sans really wants nothing to do with any of this. He likes playing chess well enough, but chess usually involves pieces and not actual people. He spends a good ten minutes before the game starts trying to figure out if he can leave the bleachers. Once he notices that Papyrus is on the "board," he tries to teleport to him and fails. He's stuck here, and presumably so is everyone else.

He's tense through the opening moves, and he just gets tenser when it becomes obvious that capturing a piece actually involves violence. It's like watching a very slow blood sport, and the whole idea turns his nonexistent stomach. He's got people out there. Max, Tim, Jay, Shepard, Papyrus.

Something small and bitter and vicious does wake up in him when he sees Mirrorton get captured though. He can't help a sudden grin, and under his breath he says,

"get dunked on, asshole."

B: Papyrus's capture

He knows enough about chess that he can see the move coming before it actually happens. First Tim goes down, and that's bad enough. The little raccoon guy--the last remaining knight after Mirrorton was captured--is set up to come right at Papyrus. Papyrus, who is just a pawn.

Sans teleports to the fence when he realizes. He needs to see it happen. Some captures have seemed almost painless, but others are just outright violent, and both cases end with the captured piece--person--just sort of disappearing. But he needs to actually see it.

Papyrus puts up a good fight, because of course he does, and Sans nearly breaks his hands gripping the edge of the fence as he watches.

"come on, bro, come on..."

He goes absolutely rigid when Papyrus finally goes down, trying to lean forward over the fence. It's too far away to make out details, but...

Chess pieces don't actually die. They just--they just go back in the box. And there's ways to get pieces back, everyone knows that.

"no dust. no dust, he'll be okay."

He says it over and over to himself, like a mantra.


Mirror Sans

Mirror Sans barely moves throughout the whole game, staying at Mirror Papyrus's side, gently rocking back and forth and watching the game very closely. He doesn't say much, but he at least seems to understand what's going on.

It's only when Real Papyrus gets captured that he moves, walking down to the edge of the fence and starting to pace back and forth--slowly and rather ponderously, since he's still a Sans after all. He shakes his head every now and then.

"bro. bad."

He's agitated for the whole rest of the game.

mirror sans

[naughty_nurse]

"Sans..."

Mikan takes her time to approach the Other Sans. She knows he can be like a nervous rabbit, almost rivaling her anxieties. But did she just hear actual speech now? Has he been learning?

When she's in his eyesight, she offers his hand. "...You... you don't have to watch, if it's too much for you."

mirror sans

[serifsans]

He hears her voice and looks up, blinking. Oh, it's her. The nice one. What was her name again? She approaches slowly, and he likes that about her. She's careful. Too many people, especially Mirrors, are not careful.

"mm. mi. k."

Words are still a problem. Even with her dead and gone, it's hard to remember that he's allowed to speak at all, let alone how to shape the words. Her name is a lot of sounds he's not used to.

She reaches very slowly toward him, and he likes that about her too. He watches her hand for a moment, then briefly reaches out and takes it. He even squeezes, just a little, before letting go.

"bro."

He points out toward the field, where Papyrus--which Papyrus? there's a Papyrus here in the stands with him too, right? which one?--was just defeated. He reaches up and rubs at his forehead with the heel of his hand.

"bad."

[naughty_nurse]

He's making leaps and bounds in social anxiety recovery, as far as Mikan knows. If they weren't watching a bloody chess game, she'd smile in pride. But this is no time for cheer. Seeing the Real Papyrus go down had siezed her heart painfully, almost making her cry. It had taken actual fight to make sure that hadn't happened, especially when others could use her help in any way.

"He'll be back." Mikan says even though she has little proof of that despite her own hopes. "We just... have to be patient, and wait. He'll be back. Bro will be back... Bad won't last." Perhaps this time around, he can understand her better too.

[serifsans]

His understanding of things is steadily getting better. He was born in Wonderland, so no matter what has happened to him since, there's some things that don't go away and don't change.

"b...k."

People come back. They always come back, at least until Wonderland gets rid of them. He just...can't remember which brother was the one on the field. It's so confusing being on this side of the mirrors. Another him. Another Papyrus. It's easy to get everything mixed up, and it's already so hard for him to keep things straight.

He just knows he wants that Papyrus to come back already, whichever one he is. He hugs himself briefly.

"mnn. b... k. b-be. b-ba-ck."

At least the sounds for these words are fairly simple.

[naughty_nurse]

As tempting as it is to hug him now, Mikan doesn't want to spook him. Instead, she sits down next to him on the stands, her hands open and laying on her lap if he wants to grab them again.

"Yes, that's very good. Be back. You did a good job, Sans." Is this how teachers feel with students? "He'll be back... I know he will. Everything will be okay." The more she said it, the more she began to believe it. "Everything will be all right, Sans."

[serifsans]

Good. He's doing good. He did a good job. His face practically lights up. Someone thinks he's going a good job. His brother tells him so a lot, but he knows Papyrus would probably say so even if he wasn't.

"good..."

It makes him feel warm. How nice.

He nods twice.

"back." His brother, or his other brother, will be back. But...Sans doesn't know if he's safe. Or alive. People die all the time. Dying hurts, or at least he thinks it must.

"hhh." He frowns a little. He can't make the words happen. Can't remember what they are. He looks out at the field again. He just hopes his brother is okay.

[naughty_nurse]

She thought it was going well, so why does he look upset again? Mikan fidgets, trying to find more comforting thoughts. "Do... do you want me to stay with you? I could, I don't mind. Sometimes these things can be easier to deal with when you're with a friend."

At least, she considered the two of them friends. Was that too presumptuous?

[serifsans]

He tilts his head a little, watching her.

mik ss... s... st..."

He can do this. He knows this word. She believes in him and he doesn't want to let her down. He doesn't like letting people down.

"sssstt...ay. st-ay. st-ay."

It's...it's pretty close, right? He nods a little, smiling tentatively. He thinks he got it right. Maybe.

"mik. st-ay?"

She's offering to stay with him, he thinks. Because--because it's nicer and easier to deal with upsetting things when someone nice is with you. Like how he feels better when Papyrus is around. He gives another tentative smile and nods, almost shyly.

The other word--the other word is familiar too. It's from a long time ago, and he can't remember what it means, but it leaves a warm feeling in his chest.

[naughty_nurse]

Even with all the horrible things going on in the game and in the stands, Sans clear effort to speak can't help but make her feel happy. A smile slowly begins to spread across her face. Efforts and choices... those things mean a lot to her, especially coming from someone who has difficulties with both. She's genuinely touched.

"Mikan stay." She repeats, hands on her lap. "... Mikan stay as long as Sans wants." It felt a little silly to talk like that, but if it helps, then she's happy to. She's really happy. It's nice to feel wanted. "Mikan stay with Sans."

Real - Papyrus Captured

[dodged_and_burned]

"Counterargument-"

Mirror!Max's voice bursts out from behind him.

"-maybe he went home?"

That would be... freaky, right?

She grins.

"I'm only joking. If Max Caulfield was gone, I would be too, right?"

[punful]

He hears her before she speaks up, heard her approaching. Didn't do much other than acknowledge that someone was behind him. When she does speak, he turns, expression completely neutral.

Her again. Of course she'd come to gloat. Of course. She probably knows full well that the idea of Papyrus going home is just as bad as the idea of him dying.

"you, disappear? as if i'm that lucky."

[dodged_and_burned]

"Oh, har har. Come on, we've had our moments." There's a strong undercurrent of sarcasm in her voice. Her grin grows wider, but also more fake.

"Believe it or not I have what's possibly a very good suggestion." She lets that hang in the air for a moment, sucking in a breath and holding it- then all at once releasing it in a burst of words.

"Doyouwantmetorewind?"

She makes a waving, spiral motion with her hand.

"Bring back the good old bro?"

[punful]

"sarcasm isn't funny."

He shifts his position a bit so that he's facing her a bit more. His body language is nonchalant, even if he's tense as hell. He regards her with total disdain and judgment in his eyelights.

He doesn't dignify the first part with an answer, but his eyelights flick toward her hand when she makes that motion. She has all the power here and they both know it. It would be the fourth rewind, he thinks, and even though he hasn't teleported in a few hours, he's not sure what it would do to him.

"messing with time tends to break things more often than it fixes 'em."

He smirks a bit as he says it. The crack on his skull is still there after all this time.

"but, yanno. i appreciate you asking to murder me this time."

Sarcasm isn't funny, but it is easy.

[dodged_and_burned]

She tilts her head to one side. The sarcasm is absolutely not lost on her. "Eggs." She points at him. "Omelettes." She points at the chessboard.

But then she shrugs.

"Guess it's hard to believe I can be nice. Ah well, wouldn't want to disappoint a fan."

He's clearly slotted her into the bad guy stereotype, and... well, she can't say he's wrong. Can't say she's ever really thought about that. So she might as well commit to it. She turns quickly on one foot so her back is to him, even as she whips out her camera.

"Smile for a selfie!"

[punful]

"more of a pancakes guy myself."

He actually snorts when she suggests that she can be nice. Nice people don't act the way she does. They don't mess with people and hurt for them for no reason other than entertainment.

She turns her back on him and part of him wants to maybe just take the opportunity to grab her soul and deposit her somewhere else in the stands. Not attack her, just--get her away from him.

She pulls out her camera because of course she does and he just flips it off.

Mirror Time

[bonegentruckung]

Mirror Papyrus has been keeping a close watch on the game, stoic as ever. ...more specifically, he's been keeping an eye on his Real. Of course he'd be a pawn. How far did he fall? If he were to actually, you know, keep up with his duties and what he's meant to do, then maybe the Red Queen would see him as a better fit for the king piece.

Ah, well. It's really none of his concern.

When the Real Papyrus finally goes down, he watches his brother slowly make his way to the edge of the fence, obviously out of concern. Does...he even know what's going on?

Eventually, Mirror Papyrus stands up from the stands and makes his way towards Mirror Sans.

"BROTHER," he says, slowly and gently placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. He's been trying to continue to make his movements around his brother slower than usual - something predictable, he hopes. "THERE IS NO NEED TO WORRY. THIS IS JUST A GAME. I AM CERTAIN THAT HE WILL RETURN."

At the worst case scenario, his Real will just come back to life after, what, a couple of days? Must be nice having that luxury.

[serifsans]

He looks up when he sees his brother coming and stops pacing for a moment, though he shifts on his feet, not sure if he should keep moving or not.

"bro."

He doesn't flinch when Papyrus touches him. He's gotten better about it. It's best when he can see it coming, and when it's Papyrus and not a stranger. The touch stops his fidgeting and he goes still, visibly relaxing a little.

"bro. bad."

He points out toward the field. It's a war. He remembers that word a lot. Everyone was saying that word. War, and talk about people dying. People die all the time, and then they come back, but dying is supposed to hurt.

[bonegentruckung]

Mirror Papyrus looks over to where his brother is pointing at, the field. He tries to make out if there are any remnants of his Real anywhere, even the slightest bit of dust, but they're too far away for him to tell. Given his opponent however...he doubts that his opponent would let him surrender. Nor does he doubt that his real would give in so easily.

Anyway, that's not what he should be concerned about. He shifts his attention back to his brother. He's glad that he's been making some progress, at least.

"WE WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE GAME IS OVER," he says quietly. "IF MY REAL RETURNS, THEN YOU KNOW THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. IF NOT...THEN WE WILL SEE WHAT MEASURES WE HAVE TO TAKE TO ENSURE THAT HE IS WELL."

He really couldn't care less about the state of his Real, but for the sake of his brother and easing his worries...if there is a snag that happens, and his Real doesn't return after the game is over, then, well...he may have to reluctantly seek some assistance. He'll cross that bridge when he gets to it, if it does happen.

[serifsans]

He looks slowly between his brother and the field, turning over the words he knows and the sounds he doesn't in his head. His brother's tone is nice at least. It makes him feel a little better, like maybe things will be okay.

"mn..."

If something bad happens to the Real, does something bad happen to the Mirror? He wraps both arms around one of his brother's and leans heavily against him, like a nervous dog.

"bro...good...?"

[bonegentruckung]

He's absolutely unsure if what he just said was even the right thing to say, but he doesn't show any signs of reluctance on the outside. He still looks stoic as ever, as if the weight of the entire world is on his shoulders. He's used to that weight, though, so it's all right.

As soon as his brother holds onto one of his arms, he uses his free arm to rub his brother's back, hoping that will at least provide some comfort if his words didn't work.

"HE WILL BE FINE. WHEN THE MATCH IS OVER, WE CAN FIND MY REAL AFTERWARDS SO I CAN PROVE IT TO YOU. ALL RIGHT?"

[serifsans]

"He." His brother is still talking about the other brother. He'll be back. His brother already said so. And they can make sure when this is all over.

It's...confusing. It's confusing when there's two of everything.

"nn."

That isn't what he was asking, though. He tugs Papyrus's hand a little and looks up at him. He looks so stiff and rigid.

"bro? good?"

There's words he could be saying to make himself clearer, but he just--he just can't get to them. It's frustrating sometimes. Like all the words and understanding are just out of his reach. Like they're still locked up in his skull somewhere.

It's important that his other brother is alright, but it's just as important that this brother is alright. He wonders sometimes if anyone ever even asks this brother if he's alright. He reaches up and lays a hand against Papyrus's chest, just for a moment.

"bro good?"

[bonegentruckung]

His brother doesn't look satisfied with his answer. It's so hard to tell what he can understand and what he can't understand. That's something that he'll never admit out loud, however. It's not his brother's fault he's like this, and the monster who is responsible for this already has gotten her just desserts.

He can't help but smile at the thought that Malphys is gone for good. Good riddance.

In any case, he's trying to figure out what his brother is actually trying to say with what little words he has. After his brother places one of his own hands onto his chest, things seem a little clearer. It's possible that he's more concerned about his wellbeing instead of his Real.

Really, comparing his doofy, happy-go-lucky Real to the serious Mirror, is it any contest for who is more approachable? It's things like that that really shouldn't matter to him, as there are much more important things to worry about, but deep down...

He still can't help but feel a bit moved by his brother's gesture. "I'M...ALL RIGHT, BROTHER. REALLY." He tries to maintain a stoic look on his face, but there's a bit of uncertainty behind it, if you knew where to look. There haven't been a lot of chances where anyone has asked him how he's feeling. Why should there be? A king should always appear noble and level-headed, not uncertain.

"I AM DOING ALL RIGHT, GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES," he says as he still feels the weight of keeping up his appearance on his shoulders.

[serifsans]

He watches Papyrus carefully, though he's also avoiding eye contact. His brother keeps secrets. He remembers that he used to do the same, but he can't remember now why he did that, or how keeping a secret is supposed to work.

His brother seems to be watching him closely as well. It must be hard. It must be so frustrating. Having someone like him, who can't talk, can't take care of himself, can't do anything.

She always used to say so. That he was frustrating, stupid, that no one wanted him. That everyone who could have wanted him was gone.

It still hurts to think about her.

His brother seems to understand. He answers. He says he's alright. Sans lets himself relax a little and he nods once. His brother is alright.

"good."

He goes back to leaning against his brother again.

[bonegentruckung]

At least now, his brother seems satisfied with his answer. That's good. The last thing he wants to do right now is put his burdens on his brother's shoulders, especially when he is still recovering from the...seemingly endless time he was kept prisoner from that...it wouldn't be right to call her a monster, would it? That thing.

He's thankful that his brother has calmed down. Getting into a panic because of this stupid chess match is just a waste of energy. So is even worrying about his Real, but he has a feeling that saying that out loud would just make his brother anxious again, and he really doesn't need that. So, he'll swallow his pride.

Maybe having him sit down in the stands again will help more as well. "HERE, LET US..." He trails off. His brother is probably so used to not being given a choice, whereas he is so used to giving others orders. Hm.

"...DO YOU WANT TO SIT DOWN IN THE STANDS AGAIN?" he corrects himself. Right. Okay. Give his brother some control. If he really needs his brother to do something for him, he'll wait until he is in a better condition. He doesn't want to be Malphys 2.0 over here.