distant traces of beauty

If there's anything I could improve on regarding how I play Dahlia, please let me know here! Comments are screened, anon is on, IP logging is off.

There are particular locks and chains that are used to seal up the Inner Temple of Hazakura when a spirit medium is training. They're called "trick locks", and can only be unlocked by the person who set them because there are literally hundreds of possible combinations to them.

The case doesn't really get into detail about what they're made of, but one thing is clear: They aren't ordinary locks. Iris placed one on the temple door to seal Maya in for training, but when Phoenix came back later to investigate, Dahlia had placed four more. There were no extra locks anywhere near the temple; even if there were, Dahlia wouldn't have known where to find them. So it stands to reason that these locks are summoned by the person who places them. Obviously this takes a bit of spiritual power, but Iris and Dahlia are only said not to be spirit mediums; as members of the Fey family, they have at least a little, even if it's not much.

Aside from being summoned psychically or whatever and being almost impossible to unlock if you aren't the one who set them, the locks are completely ordinary. They look like Psyche Locks, for those who know what those look like, but they're physical locks and chains that lock up doors, windows, and the like, and can be broken with enough physical strength.

[ in-character record ]
All of the following is written in a little pink notebook adorned with butterfly patterns, stashed under Dahlia's mattress. It has a lock, and the key is carried in Dahlia's pocket. How cutesy.


My name is Dahlia Hawthorne. If anybody is reading this without my permission, please stop. This is a private record.

I have been imprisoned for the crime of bank robbery, which I did not commit and am not psychologically capable of committing.


We are the "third generation" of inmates. The first two generations are all dead, supposedly killed by a plague created and unleashed by Agatha. A riot broke out during the outbreak. The graveyards within the facility are empty. No bodies have been buried.

Agatha also genetically engineered the dinosaurs that roam the streets at night. Sentience is either unwilling or unable to control these creatures. [ scrawled in later: ] The answer seems to be "unwilling", as the dinosaurs that roamed around during the "eighth day" have been removed.

Sentience is able to see not only our pasts and the crimes we've committed, but supposedly our futures as well. Claims that I will be put on trial. Did not say whether I will be convicted.

According to a fellow inmate, Sentience told him we will not be missed at home. "Dimensional flux" will cover up our absences and it will be as though we did not disappear. (Then what was the point of arresting us...?) Also of note: Sentience is not above arresting children.

The rules forbid sexual intercourse and overuse/misuse of "powers".

The communication devices we've all been given not only provide a way of speaking with each other no matter where we are within the facility, they also automatically translate any language into any other.

"The system is self-sufficient," supposedly needing no input from the outside.

At least one inmate has been detained for the crime of "selfishness".

Sentience will help inmates who are harmed by other inmates, but dodged the question of whether it would prevent that harm to begin with.

Sentience apparently has psychological profiles of all inmates.

[ written in a particularly annoyed hand: ] The facility is capable of simulating rain.

Sanji is very annoying.

Sentience has a naming protocol it must adhere to. Nobility and royalty are addressed by their titles, but everyone else is called "criminal". [ added later: ] Fellow inmate Shezca Shexa Sheska (?) has convinced Sentience to replace "criminal" with "inmate". Apparently it's open to suggestion.

Sentience claims to be unable to detect Agatha's lifesigns within the facility.