THE GRAVEYARD

[divus]

THE LANDING

You’re having an out of body experience. That’s how it starts, dying. There isn’t any pain anymore, and for a moment, not much of anything else. Your thoughts are a dim hum in the back of your brain, the tips of your fingers seem miles away. Despite that, you find yourself moving, moving, moving from the last place you were in your own body and forward, until you reach a door that you haven’t seen since the beginning of the game. A door that wouldn’t open. A door cold to the touch and seeping with mist. It opens before you, and as if of someone else’s design you walk through it. As it closes behind you, you get the distinct feeling that if you turned around, you’d find it vanished.

What takes up most of your attention, however, is the tolling of church bells. They clang in rhythmic, almost maddening persistence--seems you’re just going to have to try and ignore them, as they show no signs of slowing or stopping, wherever they are.

Once the cacophony becomes easier to manage, the bong, bong, bonging evening out to a pulse inside your ears, you realize that where you are seems to be a world that's incomplete. The floor is nothing but a landing of invisible matter, a spooled red carpet leading you to a few rows of pews and a lone confessional.

You will notice, immediately ahead of you, a cute little mailbox fit for a suburban home. It bids you welcome, though the cheery paint job is a bit muted in this dark place.

Simple and neat furnishings dot the edges of where the landing seems to be: railings mark the unseen edges and draperies and sconces float in the void, giving an illusion of walls. Be careful, however, because they can easily be fallen through if leaned against. Fortunately, someone seems to have kept that in consideration, as a helpful sign warns just this.

On one side of the confessional, a room with bookshelves, a writing table, and pens and paper has been provided: a minimalist study for when you need a bit of privacy to think. On the other side, a wing of dorm-sized, lockable bedrooms provide another bit of space to oneself. There may not be enough for everyone, but nobody really has to sleep--so just take turns!

To the left of the pews, it looks like a miniature bar has been crafted with a small but decent selection of drinks. There's a small television seated on the counter, but it only seems to ever work two times a week: the week's opening announcement on Monday mornings, and Saturdays, tuning in at the beginning of the trial and tuning back out again at its conclusion. There's also a piano to one side of the bar, allowing anyone to provide musical accompaniment to their drinking.

Perhaps most interestingly, an ornate black doorway at the far end of the room leads to a curving hallway that ultimately leads to what appears to be a temple. It's similar to the altar room they'll remember from the living side, but there are no power inscriptions, and the only furnishings are wavering, grayscale candles on the walls that never seem to burn low and great sculptures of leaping rams. The two black-marble statues meet in the center, curved horns joined above a platform, decorated with nothing but a lone offering bowl. The dark marble of the item is cracked, but it seems like it'll still get the job done. Try sending something, if you wish!

Maybe this place is meant to be more. But for now, Patience is the only notable figure you have to place your attention on, and she comes forward to welcome you immediately.

"Welcome to my dominion," she greets in her usual, cheerful candor, and points at your hand, where you hold your godly token. "Now that you've been eliminated, I'll take that back and return it on your behalf. Don't worry, though, I'm not leaving you empty handed."

OOC NOTES

Hello, eliminated competitors, and welcome to the graveyard. Although it isn't much to look at, now, this area will be growing and expanding in time with the help of your characters' actions and participation in weekly events. What they unlock will have an impact on the living side, overarching plot elements, and ways to communicate between both planes!

When it seems like there isn't much to do, there's always one option left: gathering information. So sit back, enjoy the afterlife, and put on your thinking cap!

full navigation.

locations ♦ taken ♦ profiles ♦ weekly curfew ♦ murder proposals
ic rulebook ♦ temple offerings ♦ private convos

Comments

a very angry child

[selfimmolates]

[ray isn't around when he first arrives, though the sound of a 12-year-old yelling zoe's name might've tipped people off as to what his first priority was? because SOMEONE decided to be AWFUL and send a child 30 seconds of telepathically hearing his sister figure here dying (spoilers, it's eli).

anyway, after he's wandered around a bit (looking for someone else and, unfortunately, not seeing them), you can find him later, with more chill now after reuniting with zoe.




jk ray has never had any chill in his life and he's not about to start now. if anything, dying mostly pissed him off, so he's even angrier than when he was alive?]

Are you kidding me? Is this fucking karma? Goddamnit.

[artificialhighness]

[looks up from her book, probably on music or something unnecessarily innocuous





looks back down]

Karma would imply that the gods had a hand directly. It may have been an inevitability, but I must admit I did not expect to see you so soon.

[selfimmolates]

[a beat.

and then, suddenly switching over to calm—]

Yo, Luna. I had a very interesting Friday morning because of you.

[artificialhighness]

Did you?

[She's still paging through her book, motions easy.]

I'm afraid I don't know which Friday you're referring to.

[selfimmolates]

Around the same morning two people came rushing for my help in patching them up. No wonder Merriment talked me out of killing you that week.

[artificialhighness]

[She finally looks up agan, head tilted and smiling. It's an empty smile, without any particular inflection.]

And perhaps Newt and I should have targeted you that week. You were always a threat, of course.

[There's no actual threat in the words. It's just matter-of-fact.]

Ishikirimaru and Takaomi did well in clinging to life. I suppose that extends to you as well, until now.

[hymned]

... Karma implies you'd done something to merit this happening to you-- and from what I can tell many of those on your side either adored you or thought you useful and reasonable, at the very least.

[ anger is fine, that's probably to be expected, given that the living probably didn't find his actual killer, and it's clear he didn't go down without a struggle,

but julius is keeping his distance, lounging in what passes as their. lounge area, i guess, to keep from crowding or pressuring someone he doesn't much know well. ]

You'll forgive me if phrasing it that way raises some alarming questions?

[selfimmolates]

[with more calmness (and genuine, rather than passive-aggressive, because unlike with luna, ray has no problems with julius?)—]

Oh, I just helped Luna's killer hide a missing hand. So, I guess I can't be too surprised my killer managed to hide the fact that I shot, slashed, and burned them—or found a way to heal themselves. Either or.

[hymned]

Ah, so you were one of the ones who managed to help Ishikirimaru somehow.

[ Sorry Ray, that's uh, common knowledge here since Luna didn't make a secret of how she died. ]

I wondered about that. Creative application of smoke and mirrors, or did you manage to build a replacement somehow?

-- Here, by the way. I suspect at least some of these might be for you, but unfortunately I can't quite tell on account of the language barrier.

[ JUST SO WE CAN GET THE NEW DEAD THEIR LETTERS CRIES ]

[selfimmolates]

[he figured it was common knowledge or he never would've admitted to it tbh.

he shrugs.]

You'll just have to guess.

[oh, thanks for the senri care package.]

... That moron... [anyway.] Good to know these actually make it over, though—I tried sending stuff weeks back since Piety said it'd probably work, but I was never sure if it did.

[hymned]

Fair enough. We've always received them, from what I can tell, but couldn't respond until recently- just last week, about.

[ it's a little hard to tell time in the void when you don't need to sleep and there are no obvious indicators of day or night, but now that they can keep track of new announcements it's not hard to guess at how much time has passed.

he inclines his head towards where he's sitting, towards the hallway leading out of the landing, the piano, study, bedrooms. ]

Chuuya and I had to facilitate the creation of much of this. Otherwise, this place was much more sparse two weeks ago.

[sedulitas]

Ray... I didn't expect to see you here. Guess that didn't work out well for either of us.

[ yeah, he's not really surprised about ray's anger since you know, that's fair. ]

[selfimmolates]

... You too, huh? That sucks.

[a beat.]

Wait—if you and I are both here, then who the hell is left over there for medical aid?

[sedulitas]

[ w...why did he have to bring that up. ]

I'm...sure someone could figure it out.

[ he hopes? jude has many hopes..... ]

I kept taking every medical supply that I could from the wings and stashed them away in the kitchen, if nothing else.

[selfimmolates]

I left a bunch of my medical supplies with people too... Ugh, we'll see. I don't trust people not to get injured over the next two weeks.

[sedulitas]

I don't either, unfortunately.

I know there wasn't much of a concern in the beginning but that was just the beginning.

[goatsongs]

[This is the first time Chuuya's had advance warning about who died, so he should be prepared, but - he's not. He sees Ray and he swears his heart stops.]

Ray.

[selfimmolates]

[...

well, after zoe, chuuya's probably his favourite person in this entire place, so ray calms down upon seeing him.]

Yo.

[goatsongs]

[time to see if he remains that way, because Chuuya goes in for the hug.]

I'm so sorry.

[selfimmolates]

[UHHHH]

What the—what the hell are you doing? And what are you apologizing for!?

[goatsongs]

I'm hugging you because you died and I wanted you to survive!

[ray you're smart you should know what a hug is??]

[arockstar]

Sure is, dude. Welcome to the other side.

[He waggles his fingers in a spooky ghost fashion. Hey bud.]

[selfimmolates]

[wow spoopy]

Yeah, it already sucks.

[arockstar]

That's karma for you. So who finally wised up enough to target you?

[selfimmolates]

Nah, dying wasn't karma. I could've easily prevented it if I was willing to make a few sacrifices. Them getting away with it is what sucks.

[he shrugs.]

Secret.