the_isle | Daycare Attendant intro

Open/locked?: Open!
Who: Whoever wants to investigate
What: The daycare attendant's inglorious intro
Where: Inside the building
Why: Because his player is terrible?
Warnings: Moon being Moon. Yep. (More seriously, nothing just yet past possible violence. Let's see if anyone can get Sun to spill to them, first.)
Extra info: this bot is kinda tall. And if anyone wants to know what they sound like... :D

In one of the lower levels -- not so low as to still be flooded, but unused enough for no one to have turned the lights on lately... there was a crash, and a screech.

It wasn't the biggest crash; someone had just dropped a box of something. But the screeching... that sounded like genuine distress. It was a higher-pitched voice, probably not one anyone would have found all that immediately familiar. "No" could be made out clearly enough at first, repeated, louder and more frantically, until after a few seconds, it sounded strangled... and then it was quiet.

Dare someone investigate?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Foulques shrugged. "I'm afraid you're asking the wrong man," he said. "I'm no mage, and know naught of how the barrier functions. I merely know what it does, namely preventing any form of magecraft or similar channeling of aether. Highly inconvenient for us, perhaps, but a reasonable measure, given this Isle's intended purpose as a prison, since a number of its original inmates were mages of note."

There indeed would have been had Foulques another piece in position to become the next link. But at present he did not, so rather than delaying the inevitable, he instead moved his rook to take the piece that had claimed his knight, knowing that said rook would likely be taken next turn.

Edited Date: 2024-12-28 03:10 am (UTC)

And it was; so began the chain reaction?

Sun made a little sound and shook his head as he tucked the lower part of his face back down behind his knees again. "That... doesn't sound right."

"Lest you wonder, there were as many, if not more, who were not mages," he said. "It was their deeds, not their arts that gained them a place on this Isle. Though the rightness of it is still dubious at best, for a great many reasons, not the least of which was that the children of those prisoners were left confined on the Isle as well. Thus this was less a formal prison than a place to put anyone deemed unwanted or unfit by Auradon society out of sight and out of mind."

"Fortunately, the king who instituted such a policy no longer rules, and his son is of quite a different mind. I've met him; the boy is almost painfully earnest and hasn't quite grown into himself yet, but even in the highly unusual circumstances that have resulted from this strange mixing of worlds, he and those on the mainland have done what they can to assist us here. And any who wish to may put themselves forth and state their case to be allowed leave this place and travel to the mainland to live in relative peace and comfort. The last was true even before the current situation occurred; all the children were freed, and the adults given a chance to atone for their crimes or plead their case if they believe themselves to have been wrongly imprisoned."

And yes the short chain reaction was begun. His rook was taken and the piece that had taken it was duly taken in turn by his pawn. You move, Sun.

That pawn got captured too; they were both making great headway in clearing up that part of the board....

Sun was quiet a decent pause, though, thinking about it, turning his head to tilt it the other way as he did, still resting it behind his knees... he probably *could* stretch his neck up higher, to properly look up over it more easily, but he was relaxed there like that, odd proportions meaning that the knees of those poofy pants of his were just going to keep obscuring his vision until he deliberately looked down to the board for his moves.

"...So there's probably more to clean up here?" He gestured a little, vaguely, toward the room's door... yeah, that mess. The one all over the school building.

Foulques wasn't quite sure quite why that was Sun's response, but nodded. "Aye," he said. "The only parts I'd avoid entirely are those rooms that the so called teachers her have claimed as their own. Not only do some of them tend to be rather dark, but their inhabitants are best avoided when possible."

"I at least attempt to keep the room claimed as my own reasonably tidy, as you can see." Indeed, while the scuffed and grubby-looking floor, graffitied walls, and grimy ceiling could hardly be called clean, it was at least free of trash and loose dirt and debris, his possessions organized fairly neatly. "Or as much so as the circumstances allow. There are very few cleaning tools that I've found, but clearing out rubbish was a simple enough task, if time consuming. I haven't the time to do that elsewhere however, as I have other tasks to attend to."

They were indeed. Another pawn was moved forward, not taking anything this time, but allowing space for other pieces to pass if he chose.

The jester nodded. "Well, then, I can do that; I'm good with cleaning things up!" Voluntary janitor acquired? Maybe?

He glanced back down at the board... and finally moved his queen out diagonally. There wasn't a rook on that side, the knight had also been taken... the bishop was on the wrong color... the pawns were already advancing or taken....

Sun looked up at Foulques, his finger lingering there on the queen for a moment... and giggled a little, taking his finger off. There, proof that he'd been trolling.

Edited Date: 2024-12-29 09:33 am (UTC)

Suddenly that unchanging grin seemed rather smug. Foulques smiled wryly in return; clearly he'd bee right about Sun not playing to his full ability. Well there was nothing for it but to finish the game. He knew now he wasn't going to win, but neither would he give up. He moved his king one space diagonally, out of immediate danger.

"Under other circumstances, I would say that you needn't trouble yourself," he said. "But truth be told, such work sorely needs doing, as you've seen, and there are few who have both the time and the inclination to do it."

Sun barely glanced back down before moving again. "Okay! And I'll keep an eye out for more things we could use to make other games, while I'm at it...."

Foulques' King was moved one more space, and to pursue it, Sun would put his Queen in danger of being taking by that bishop that had previously been on the wrong color.

Foulques himself, meanwhile, nodded. "Or anything else that may be of use," he suggested. "Though I suspect that it's been picked clean of anything truly useful, beyond the sort of bits and bobs used to make this."

Now it was time to get the other half of his pieces into play... he moved again, bringing another pawn forward, and then leaned himself down to the side a bit, to get a better look at the pieces on the board, examining the little pieces more closely.

"Maybe I should just start sorting things? ...And then you can tell me afterwards what to do with it?"

Foulques considered, both the board and the idea. "Loose paper at least, should be sorted," he said. "What has a clean side can be used for writing, what doesn't can serve as kindling. Any small bits of metal or glass with sharp edges should likely be discarded. Or for the former, perhaps set aside for that strange metal-eating fellow. Any bits without though, or anything else you may find, you may do as you see fit."

The pieces themselves seemed to be made of a combination of wood- mostly for the bases- and things like bolts and bottlecaps. The pawns in particular were made of a specific size of screws stuck into small, round wooden bases before being painted. For his move, Foulques moved one of his pawns as well, the one on the far edge of the board, hoping to free up his other rook.