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

[artificialhighness]

[Luna's been mostly quiet, these last weeks, simply drifting around the land of the dead where they've all been staying and staying herself -- cool and disinterested, always a shade or more so than she was alive.

Then they all settle down in front of the television this fine day and she moves a little closer than usual, looking between the crowd and all of the revelations happening on screen. Finally:]

Ah. I suppose that since we're at the end of this game, it wouldn't hurt to tell some of the secrets of the dead, as well.

I was a follower of Indulgence since the beginning, and switched only in the week before my death, to Ambition. I used my power thrice, twice to test, and once to explore. With Ambition, I used it once.

[So, yeah, there's that. Also:]

One more thing, I think. I did not kill Fortune, and do not know who did.

[arockstar]

[Newt throws up his hands.]

Oh my god, why'd you tell them? Everyone's been dying on that hill. It'd have been way funnier to let it ride.

[artificialhighness]

[She just gives him a half-smile.]

We are at the end of the game, Newt. We may as well speculate as to who must have gotten away with it, all this time. I would wager they're still among the living.

[arockstar]

Eh. I guess.

[He understands, honestly. He did basically the same thing when he got caught. But still!!!]

Wish we clue the living in. The revelation would be better topside.

[artificialhighness]

We should leave them to focus on their gods and their squabbles.

[If it wasn't obvious, she has relatively little investment topside anymore, apart from the existence of perhaps a few people, and only insofar as none of them are around here.]

It is the privilege of the living to continue to move forward, and the duty of the dead to watch over them.

[arockstar]

So then who's watching out for us? Leaving here empty-handed isn't something I'm cool with.

[selfimmolates]

That's nice, but it also doesn't even remotely matter anymore and you were caught trying to kill Ruin anyway, so?

[artificialhighness]

Yes, it doesn't matter anymore. And we have little else to do with ourselves, don't we?

[She tilts her head at him.]

Though I hear Patience is up to something, as always.

[selfimmolates]

You're a little late to that revelation.

[artificialhighness]

It doesn't concern me especially. It seems to be Patience's nature.

[And probably her own, which is likely why she's so chill about this.]

[selfimmolates]

Out of curiosity, did you make the trade?

[goatsongs]

Great, don't care.

[artificialhighness]

[She regards him for a moment.]

Unless I miss my guess, though, you still care about this competition's winner.

[goatsongs]

Well, I have preferences, but... Mostly I just want the people I like to get their wishes.

[artificialhighness]

And your own?

[goatsongs]

...mine's a big one. It's not going to be granted even if Sincerity is in a winning alliance.

[requiemed]

[Dryly:]

Fascinating.

[artificialhighness]

[Pleasantly:]

I suppose the living are an inspiring bunch.

[requiemed]

Most of them are pretty great, at least.

[Definitely not all.]

[artificialhighness]

What do you think of their plans? Of pooling wishes and alliances?

[What an idealistic bunch, really. Though, she doesn't seem like she opposes it either way, simply quietly watching the ruckus on the screen and occasionally dipping into the ruckus in the dead side of the audience.]

[requiemed]

...I really hope they can pull it off. I know a lot of people needed some pretty important stuff.

[in_a_bottle]

But -- but then why?

[Ai's been avoiding Luna this entire time, holding back even from dirty looks, but this one she can't abide.]

Why did you say you did? Why did you turn it into a whole elaborate plot? Why try and kill Ruin, why put a hit out on me? Why do all those things you did before, trying to sow chaos and pretend you were just cursed or being misunderstood?

[artificialhighness]

[Luna doesn't look at her, because Ai hasn't been the only one running with outright avoidance, but there's no apparent rejection, either. She's simply silent for a moment, and then--]

To defeat death.

To make sure that there would still be those willing to cut down the number of gods by force, if need be. That's all. If my death could serve as a distraction for those who came after me, then let it be used. That is how I played the Game.

[in_a_bottle]

You're disgusting. Half the gods and half the game wanted to win this peacefully. You can't defeat death with more death.

[artificialhighness]

And the other half?

The solution appears to be to kill a majority of the other half, which certainly is logical. But no matter what, this is a Game where death is defeated with death. Death is a force that will always be present until it is properly uprooted, and incinerated to its very atoms.