Princess Rosella of Daventry

[Voice Post]

[The audio comes on with a fumbled click, and a moment later a child's voice speaks, slightly muffled due to the fact that she's holding the microphone a little too close to her face. However, despite this faint distortion, her voice is clear and authoritative--or at least, it gives the impression that she's trying very hard to sound that way.]

'Scuse me. Um, I know there are lots of people in this magic box, and I think maybe my knight is in here too, so could somebody tell me where he is, please? I really need to find him 'cause I think he's supposed to be watching me, so if somebody could help me, please, you would have my eternal gra--graturtude.

[A brief pause.]

Or if you don't know where he is, could you tell me how to find the castle? That's where my daddy always goes when we visit here, 'cause he has to talk to the king about matters of state. But I don't ever get to go so I don't know where the castle is. I think it would have a moat because our castle does, too, and maybe alligators.

[And now there is a long pause, long enough that a listener might think that the speaker has forgotten to switch off her device, but it turns out that it is merely Rosella waiting to see if her magic box will answer her. When no reply immediately comes, she makes a faint whine of frustration, then quickly composes herself and resumes speaking.]

Well, I'm going to go look for the castle, so if you change your mind, can you please tell me? Please? I really need to find my mother and daddy.

[Another pause.]

It's really important.

[There are another few seconds of silence, and then a rustle of fingers and fabric near the microphone, and with a click, the recording shuts off.]


[OOC: Yup, Tiny!sella is back, back again. And she has some vague memories of the last few times she was turned into a child, so she's a little more confident about where she is (and a little less willing to admit that she's lost). She's setting out to explore the City and attempt to find the nonexistent castle, so all responses assumed voice, and feel free to action if you want it.]

( Private//Hackable by Friends )

[Filtered from Alexis Hargreaves | Blue's Codes | Unhackable]

I almost wonder if it's really a coincidence, that one recurring aspect in all of my nightmares was the loss of all of my friends...and now today I've found myself in an entirely empty City. It does seem like the sort of thing that the City would do, wouldn't it? Taking someone's worst nightmares and making them come true? I almost wonder if that's the curse today; after two days of making us dream all our worst nightmares, now the curse is to make us live through them in the waking hours, rather than only in our dreams. And yet somehow...somehow it's because all this is the stuff of nightmares that I'm not afraid of it.

The City has taken plenty of people I care about away from me already. Sometimes they come back; many times, they don't. But it's that small, singular loss that makes everything else so painful, because the ache is felt so strongly when one thing changes and everything else stays the same. It's like having a hole inside you, and everything else is fine, but you know you're incomplete without that part and you can't help but feel it because it's different and awful and wrong.

But this? To take everyone away, and leave me alone without any of them?

No. Pandora didn't let hope get away, and neither will I. Nightmares aren't so fearsome when one knows they're nightmares, and nothing I did made this happen. This is a curse and I'm in the middle of it, and while I can't stop it, I won't give in to it, either. My friends are not dead. And even if they are gone, for however long this lasts, they're not gone from my memories. They're still with me, and they'll always be with me, that way.

What would they want, if they knew I'd found myself alone today?

I never knew my grandfather; his name was Sir Hereward, and he died many years before I was born. But his advice has been a part of our family for as long as I can remember, passed down from him to my father to me:

"If I have learned anything in my life, I have learned this: when in doubt or when in trouble, pick up anything that is not nailed down, and if it is, look for loose nails or boards. Check carefully into, under, above, below, and behind things. Read everything; you might learn something. Wear clean undergarments, brush after meals, and always remember, nothing is as it appears. Nothing."

Nothing is as it appears, and this emptiness is no exception.

On the bright side of things, it's rather pleasant, in its own way, to spend a day in a perfectly quiet City. It's a bit unnatural, not having any noise from birds or bustle or anything like that, but it's not the first time I've been alone in the near-silent wilderness. Tamir was rather this way, too. And I don't lack for noise, anyway, since the stillness of this curse seems to have rekindled my bad habit of talking aloud to myself, and goodness knows I talk enough for two people at times.

How long will it last, I wonder? It's a Friday today, which means there's a reasonable chance it might go the whole weekend--long curses seem to favor the weekends, don't they? And that's the ridiculous part about asking questions when one is on one's own; who do I expect to answer any of these questions? Perhaps I ought to start answering them myself, but then I'd feel doubly ridiculous about talking to myself, so I think I'll leave them be for now.

And Valor's disappeared with the rest of them, too, so I'm without a horse today. I do hope he's all right, wherever he is. But for right now, I won't let this bother me. If there's no one around, then there's no one to bother by jumping and running and yelling all I want, and Mother and Daddy always did stress the importance of making the best of a bad situation. And when I'm thoroughly tired of that, I think I'll go to the beach for a while. The beach is a lonely enough place already, under normal circumstances, when it's just yourself and the sand and the waves. I doubt it'll seem any different today, after all.


[OOC: A little rest, a little time, and Rosella's optimism is now beginning to return to its usual ridiculously high levels, so she's determined not to let this curse get her down. Also, while she's figured out that it is a curse, she hasn't realized yet that people can still reach her through the Network, so expect surprise for a bit on that one.]

[Accidental Voice Post]

I know he's in here somewhere.

No--no, no, he's not, this isn't a cave, this isn't Tamir, this is the City. No matter how much it reminds me of being back there, this isn't Tamir.

If bad things come in threes, I wonder if this is the third? First the storms, then the earthquakes, and now not a single light to be seen, anywhere in the City?

There's nothing to be afraid of. It's only the dark. There's no reason to be afraid.

But if I don't keep moving, he'll get me for sure.

Where's that lantern? I can't see where I'm going, I need it, where is it? The dwarf gave it to me, I know he did, I should have it, he gave it to me after I cleaned up the kitchen after the earthquake, stop it, stop it, what's the matter with me?

All right. Calm down, Rosella, and be sensible. I don't think I'm in the Warehouse anymore, so I must be outside, but I couldn't have gotten that far away from it. I'm not in a cave, I'm not beneath any mountains, and there are no trolls. There are no trolls. All I have to do is find something I recognize, something that will help me get my bearings, and it'll be fine.

East, that'll take me right through the mountains, won't it? East until I can't anymore, and then south, south until I can go east again. There'll be a light there, a hole I can crawl through, and then the swamp. But the chasm, I have to remember to watch out for the chasm.

...Except that I don't, because I'm not in Tamir. I don't know why I keep thinking I'm--oh, goodness, is this on? Well, at least this is managing to cast a little light, anyway. It's not quite a lantern, but it's better than nothing at all.

Is everyone all right today? I think staying inside would be for the best, if you can help it. It's quite easy to get yourself in trouble, wandering around in the dark, and so I really do think it'd be much safer all around to just--what was that?!


[OOC: Currently having some memory issues, courtesy of Nate, and keeps occasionally thinking she's back in the troll cave in Tamir. Which is creepy as heck, by the way. And yes, just had a close encounter with the Mysterious Creature! Voice or action for her, today.]

[Voice Post]

When my daddy finds that nasty old witch she's gonna be sorry she ever kidnapped me!


[OOC: Cursed young and a little bit bratty! And by the way, apologies for the delay--THANK YOU, anonymous gifter! You are my hero and I would love to say thank you in person, should you choose to reveal yourself. ♥!]