The Prince's Ball (In the Restroom)
It is X minutes to midnight.
Initial visit:
The lavatory adjacent to the Prince's ballroom is quite spacious, with three porcelain sinks set in the long marble countertop, below a mirror that covers the entire upper portion of the wall. On one side, a stack of neatly-folded hand towels and a dish of little soaps shaped like roses rests on a shelf below a medicine cabinet. The toilet itself is partitioned off behind another door, so that ladies (and occasional gentlemen) may enter freely to check their elaborately coiffed hairstyles, rather than having to wait awkwardly outside while other people... conduct their business. All in all, it's quite an elegant set-up. Plainly, the architect knew a thing or two about large parties.
Subsequent visits:
You enter the lavatory, and spend a little time checking your hair and makeup, and confirming that nobody else in here is paying any attention to your actions. Fortunately, there is nowhere that people are more preoccupied with their own selves than in a lavatory. You could probably get away with murder in here, but that would be a bit gauche.
Three minutes after you've asked the Baroness what is troubling her, without taking the aspirin:
The butler enters the bathroom and bows politely to you. He unlocks the medicine cabinet with a little brass key and takes a few aspirin from a glass bottle, then relocks the cabinet.
Three minutes after you've asked the Baroness what is troubling her, having taken the aspirin:
The butler enters the bathroom and bows politely to you. He unlocks the medicine cabinet with a little brass key, and seems very puzzled that he can't find any aspirin inside. He relocks the cabinet with a frown.
Before taking the coin here:
Hmm, someone left a silver coin on the counter. Perhaps as a tip for the staff? The implication that the Prince doesn't pay his staff sufficiently would be quite boorish.
Before taking the coin here:
| Take the coin. |
You casually pick up the coin and put in your purse. Nobody notices, or if they do, they don't care enough to say anything. Perhaps they came to the same conclusion you did.
 | You acquire an item: odd silver coin |
| Take some soap. |
Without soap, having not already taken three:
You take a fresh piece of soap from the soapdish and slip it into your purse, then -- since you're in here anyway -- you take a little more time to double-check your makeup.
If you already have a soap:
You already have a piece of soap in your purse, so you decide there's no need to take a second one. You spend a few moments checking your hair instead. [turn wasted]
If you've already taken three pieces of soap:
You reach for the dish of soaps, but have second thoughts. You've already taken three of the stupid things, and you take enough pride in your work that repetition and redundancy are blights to be avoided. [turn wasted]
With a carnation:
| Rub the flower on the soap. |
You crush the carnation in your hand and rub the fragrant oils into a fresh piece of soap, which you leave in a prominent and easy-to-reach spot on the marble counter.
And then you use another wad of soap to wash your hands, because they positively reek with the stink of carnations now.
| Look in the medicine cabinet. |
Without either a hairpin or the butler's key:
You casually reach for the medicine cabinet door, only to find that it's locked. You scowl and grumble for a moment, then check the mirror to ensure that you didn't work any creases into your makeup by doing so. [turn wasted]
[With the butler's key, skip to the cabinet sub-choice]
With a hairpin, the following choice is given:
You casually reach for the medicine cabinet door, only to find that it's locked. Blast. The lock appears to be quite simple, though, and you do have that hairpin you swiped from the Baroness...
| Pick the lock. |
You give the hairpin a slight bend, fit it into the lock, and with a few expert twists the lock clicks open. Marvelous. The butler will probably relock it when he comes in to check the towels, but in the meantime you have a moment to pilfer the contents. (The hairpin, unfortunately, is bent past the point of usefulness, and you discard it.) [The bottle choice below is given; the hairpin is lost]
| Never mind. |
You decide to hold on to the hairpin for the moment. Perhaps you could acquire the butler's key somehow, instead... [turn wasted]
- [Medicine cabinet sub-choice]
- If you obtained the brass key from the butler:
- With a sly smirk that you feel you've entirely earned, you fit the butler's little brass key into the lock on the medicine cabinet, and give it a twist. The lock clicks open very satisfyingly, and you pull the door open to look inside.
- In all cases:
- The cabinet contains a variety of little bandages, nostrums, and all the sorts of things people might need at a party. The items that most catch your eye, however, are three medicine bottles: one each of syrup of ipecac, aspirin, and laudanum.
| Take the bottle of syrup of ipecac. |
- You check that the stopper is secure, then slip the bottle of syrup of ipecac into your purse. Ipecac is usually used to induce vomiting in the case of accidental poisoning, but you can think of a few reasons to induce vomiting that would be far, far more entertaining. This might shape up to be a fun party after all.
| Take the bottle of aspirin. |
- You slip the bottle of aspirin into your purse. It's probably futile to attempt to murder Cinderella with an aspirin overdose -- anyway, someone would surely notice. You might discover another use for them, though.
| Take the bottle of laudanum. |
- You check that the stopper is secure, then slip the bottle of laudanum -- a strong tincture of opium -- into your purse. A small dose of this could send a person into a dreamlike stupor, and only a little more could knock them out entirely. The possibilities for mischief are endless.
| Take nothing. |
- You decide to leave the contents of the medicine cabinet alone for now. Perhaps you'll return when you have a more concrete plan. [turn wasted]
| Hang around and wait. |
Nothing in here strikes you as being particularly useful to the task at hand, so you make small talk with a lady who is checking her makeup, and a man who is grooming his enormous powdered wig. These are the most tedious people you've ever met, but it's important to keep up appearances.
Time passes.
It is X minutes to midnight.
Occurs at The Prince's Ball.
Notes
- Although you can see the butler's key here, you do not see where he keeps it on his person. Therefore, the encounter won't enable you to steal the key.
Cindy Throwing Up
If you are here instead of where the Prince is when Cindy's due to throw up, you get this message according to what would've happened (See on the dance floor or at the canapés):
If she threw up in her purse, soap undoctored:
Cinderella runs into the restroom with her hand covering her mouth, and scrubs her face at one of the sinks. She takes large swigs of the cold tap water and spits it back out -- looks like those special cannoli you gave her kicked in, you guess. Shame you were in the wrong room to see it for yourself. After a time, she dries her face and fixes her hair, and stuffs her purse into a wastebasket under the sink before taking a deep breath and going back out to the party.
She threw up in her purse! That's pretty funny, but it could have been a lot funnier...
Your score is now +2.
If she threw up in the punch bowl, soap undoctored:
???
If she threw up on the Prince's shoes, soap undoctored:
???
If she threw up in her purse, soap doctored:
???
If she threw up in the punch bowl, soap doctored:
???
If she threw up on the Prince's shoes, soap doctored:
???
