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 plan...

[arockstar]

Okay, look, I know most of you don't like or trust me, but hear me out. If all of us take Patience's token and agree to be on her team, that'll probably be enough to overtake any gods on the living side. We can all win.

[But he knows that's not gonna be enough incentive, so:]

If Patience does win this thing, I'll use my wish to make sure everyone in the competition gets what they came here for. Everyone. Senri's already confirmed it's possible to use a wish that way, and I've worked things out with Patience... She's gonna let me come to her world with her, which means I won't have a need for a wish anyway. May as well use it to attempt to make amends, right?

[And because this is going to come up...]

All the deceit in her strategy with you guys was my idea. She was keeping it on the down-low at first because she wasn't sure who she could trust, but I told her to keep up the ruse. That's on me, not her, and it shouldn't matter in making your decision. All of us can come out of this happy. That's the important part.

[goatsongs]

Or, we can rely on one of the bleeding hearts on the living side using their wish the same way, and there's plenty of those.

[arockstar]

You're content to just sit by and hope the living remember us? I don't want to count on that. There's already been talk of leaving some people out of the "everyone wins" route.

[goatsongs]

More content than I am to go along with this.

You know it's not as simple as saying "the deceit was my idea so just forget it ever happened", right?

[arockstar]

I'm not saying to forget about it, I'm saying that we don't have time for it to matter when it comes to making a decision. Now really isn't the time to let petty grudges dictate where we go from here.

[goatsongs]

Me trying to kick you in the dick was a petty grudge. This is me not being able to trust either of you.

[arockstar]

Trust is a dumb reason to make this call. What could either of us possibly do at this point to convince you to trust us? More than that, what could we do to fuck things up if you agree to follow Patience and she wins? You'd have just as much power as me in that scenario, so even if I do try to backstab, you can thwart my evil machinations or whatever.

[artificialhighness]

[Her response is placid, but she's smiling.]

I've already given her my token, and she can do with it what she likes. I don't expect any particular wish, and would have no use for a wish that is not of the winning party.

I wonder if you do have a plan, or if this is simply an appeal.

[arockstar]

The plan was to cinch Patience's victory by way of a loophole in the rules of this game. Patience didn't need to be an active part of the competition to have followers, and by staying on the sidelines, she was able to avoid the rules the other gods imposed on themselves. It was a strategy play, which is why we had to keep it a secret. If word got back to the gods, well, it'd wreck everything.

[He shrugs.]

That's why I stole the offering bowl the other week. Patience covered for me with the game, and then gave it back because she had faith in everyone not blowing things for her. I... wasn't as trusting.

[Which he feels is VALID all things considered, but that's Newt for you.]

[artificialhighness]

Yes, but now that your cover is blown, there is only so much you can do from this side. In my view, the living are making this a much bigger threat than it is, and perhaps using it as a driving force for unifying.

They are at least good at that.

We have much less unity in the afterlife, since none of us truly chose to be here. I don't think yours was a bad plan, Newt, but what it relied on doesn't exist anymore.

[Sorry, Newt, sometimes she's just pragmatic. That being said, y'all still have her token. She's still fine with that, apparently.]

[arockstar]

Exactly. In retrospect, maybe I should've played it cooler when Ray found me out. It sure would've made this process easier.

[But hindsight is 20/20... and his big reveal was, like, super fun, so. It's hard to regret it.]

It's a long shot, I know, but I kind of thrive on long shots. Wouldn't be the first time I've managed the impossible when everyone told me it was doomed to fail.

[artificialhighness]

It is in the nature of living things to wish to die with purpose, or glory, or simply recognition.

[Even if it is some kind of temporary death, there's still enough verisimilitude to it. The end of life, the darkness of it, the aimlessness. She should know.]

You certainly seem enthusiastic about it. I wonder if your best shot wouldn't be to talk Patience into making her own appeal to the living, or joining one of the alliances. Those seem to be the talk of the hour.

[arockstar]

Patience has her own plans, of course. I think she's planning to do that, but if she leaves this place to talk to the living, the other gods will have access to her. That could be just as dangerous.

[requiemed]

And you think it’s a good idea to give control of a world to someone who’s been constantly lying to most of us why, exactly?

[A beat, and then:]

Before you say it, I don’t care that you told her to lie. She could have decided not to be shady despite what you told her.

[arockstar]

Because sometimes people do shitty things with good intentions. People can also learn from their mistakes. It's better, in my opinion, to have a leader who's messed up in the past. It's no good to have a leader with no experience in recovering from a misstep.

[requiemed]

If this were actually just a mistake in the past, maybe you’d be right, but it’s not. This is lying to us from the start with no attempt to own up to it even now. You really think someone like that would be a better leader than Piety or Love? Why?

[arockstar]

No attempt? Really?

[He gestures at the TV.]

Piety and Love are kids. They have good intentions, that's true, but they're children. They don't have enough experience to lead, and both of them are too idealistic.

[requiemed]

It doesn’t count if she’s only there either because someone summoned her, or for damage control. She didn’t come forward of her own volition, she came because everyone figured her out and it’ll look even worse if she doesn’t now.

[She sighs.]

Maybe, but good intentions is more than I can say for someone who’s been incredibly two faced this whole time.

[arockstar]

You don't think someone can have good intentions while doing something deceitful?

[in_a_bottle]

So it was you. You know, anyone who tricks people into giving up their allegiance to the god they actually chose to help an observer usurp the game can't really expect people to believe in them, so why are you blaming people for judging on things like trust and values? The things we're actually supposed to --

[Wait.]

Your plan won't work. They said in the very beginning, we couldn't all choose one god to end the competition early. Not without believing in them and their vision. Most of Patience's "followers" were tricked, didn't even know they were defecting, and still believe in the god they died under. Patience won't win in the first place.

[arockstar]

I'm not blaming anyone for anything, I'm saying we're too late in the game for that sort of thing to matter when it comes to decision-making. I'm asking everyone to lead with logic instead of gut reactions and emotions.

[...]

That's not how the game works. You've misunderstood the fine print.

[in_a_bottle]

How's it different?

[arockstar]

Think about how it worked when we were still alive. The gods never twisted our arms, right? I was still considered Ruin's follower well after I decided to betray her. Why is that?

[He pulls his little black stone out of his pocket and waggles it at her.]

This is the only thing that matters when it comes to numbers. Patience didn't twist your arm either. She just asked for a trade, and you willingly made it, so that's that.

[in_a_bottle]

And she never said why. She never once said people would be giving up their allegiance to their god. She just implied that they already had, by dying, and that it was a good idea to give up the token, without saying why.

[arockstar]

Just because you didn't have all the information doesn't absolve you of responsibility. You could've asked. She didn't force you to do anything.