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

TRIALWATCH WEEK 6

[selfimmolates]

[hurrah for the tv, which ray is turning on as soon as possible.

...

well then. he raises an eyebrow at what's going on so far, but says nothing, instead looking pensive.]

[requiemed]

[As soon as she realizes who the victims are, she lets out a breath.]

Only two this week. Maybe it’ll keep going down.

[selfimmolates]

... There's a rule this week about only being allowed to kill in self-defence. That probably stopped some people.

[requiemed]

Yeah. Smart move on the rule maker’s part.

[selfimmolates]

It means the kill count will likely go back up next week, though. ... Especially depending on the results of this trial.

[requiemed]

Depending on the results of this trial?

[selfimmolates]

[he shrugs.]

If the culprits are caught or no. The worst case scenario would be that that they kill again next week, others kill whom they suspect to be the culprits, and then we have any other miscellaneous killers as well.

[a pause, and then more quietly—]

... Though I don't think all of that will happen.

[requiemed]

If people are going to kill someone they think was a culprit, there's a way more obvious choice.

[But, hm.]

Got any hunches about who did it this week?

[selfimmolates]

Catra and Entrapta had their fans.

[...]

A few. We'll see if I'm right.

[requiemed]

...Okay. I won't ask you about it until everything's over.

[selfimmolates]

Thanks.

[... also he's rolling his eyes at the strip check. you guys apparently couldn't have stepped up your game last week, when he also didn't go down without a fight???]

[hymned]

Senri seems quite adamant about dismissing how anyone from Merriment could ever possibly be a culprit, doesn't he.

[ not that he's saying that senri is necessarily knowingly covering, or anything, but it's feeling like the beginnings of a redux of the last trial all over again. ingroup bias and us versus them and 'i trust them, so it's fine'...

on the other hand, at least they're stripping. ]

[requiemed]

He probably has his reasons.

[A small frown, though.]

[hymned]

He claimed he knew everyone in Merriment as of last week, and while I have my opinions on that sort of blank cheque trust I won't comment on it at the moment.

If he knew them all before, he cannot necessarily say the same for now, given that despite the loss of Ray from Merriment's ranks, the number of followers under that particular god hasn't changed this week.

[ ergo, someone swapped to merriment. the question is whether or not senri knows who that is and whether or not it's intentional collusion. :/ ]

[requiemed]

[She shakes her head.]

You don't know if it's just because of trust, though. He could know things the rest of us don't. He's pretty good at gaining information.

[hymned]

[ he also just shakes his head a little before sighing. ]

A social butterfly, a gossip, someone people feel confident divulging secrets to, call it whatever you will. [ dealing with corporate life and high society may or may not have predisposed him to associate that type of person with 'is likely to be a fake ass bitch', but listen if anyone met rideaux and has had to deal with him on a regular basis since their early teens they probably would understand orz ]

Ultimately I can't refute what you're saying though, given that there's so little we can do here to keep up with what they get up to on that side--

[ wait what the fuck ludger. ]

Wait. What did he say?

[requiemed]

[She looks like she wants to argue again, but. Hm. This seems more important.]

—Wait, she's alive?

[hymned]

Did she know they would be targeted, then...?

[ that's, one hell of a commitment to playing dead, but also you can't get that kind of thing on a moment's notice... ]

[requiemed]

Yeah... Especially this week, doesn't it seem weird they would think that? Given the rule and all.

[hymned]

It depends on when they might have picked it up, since it's something that had to be prepared beforehand.

It might have simply been a precautionary measure just in case, rather than any implication of guilt. Sincerity said that only one party started the night with any intent to kill, after all, and it isn't as if the possibility of being cursed for breaking a rule has necessarily stopped people in the past.

[ looking at itachi here,,,

unfortunately the dead don't get prophetic dreams so he can't comment on how it looks like they were being pursued but anyway he's just spitballing. he does look fairly concerned and thoughtful about this development, though, but... ]

Catra always did seem a very skeptical person. I almost have to wonder what her history back home was like.

[requiemed]

If they requested it specifically in return for a task or something, it seems really specific to ask for unless you think you’ll need it for some reason.

[Hm.]

She mentioned something about a Horde, but I’m not sure what she meant.

[goatsongs]

People feel confident telling their secrets to him because he trusts them and cares about them.

[So it's an important distinction.]

[hymned]

[ He opens his mouth for a moment, then closes it. He... actually looks faintly sad, almost. ]

That isn't sustainable. Not with how thin he's apparently been spreading himself. Eventually, something has to give in a game like this.

[goatsongs]

...It's not.

[Chuuya's expression is similarly sad. He knows already that Senri will run himself ragged and self-destruct if this continues much longer.]

But he's a good kid.

[hymned]

... You knew him for a week, Chuuya.

He's not cut out for this sort of place.