GRAVEYARD 2.0

[retellers]

GRAVEYARD Well, that sucked. But no matter what your death was like—whether it was something peaceful or traumatic, you'll find yourself waking in a completely white room on the floor. Small and empty, there isn't anything else there besides an open door to walk through. But before you do that, you'll probably notice that whatever injuries you may have had, including whatever may have been the death blow, are now gone. That's exciting. Stepping out of the room, it seems that you're in a large... house? with three different floors. Everything from floor, ceiling to furniture is completely white, except for the drawings that are plastered to the walls in each room. These are all colorful, drawn in colored pencils and crayon, and resemble a child's drawing. The other notable thing are the windows. While they're present all around the building, looking out of them only shows TV static. Besides that, everything is furnished with the absolute bare minimum of each room. The first floor is all typical common areas one would find in a house. There's a kitchen, living room area, laundry room, dining room, and a main hallway where the stairs are. There are also helpful drawings in these rooms that show the rooms much more lavishly decorated than they actually are. There's a door that appears to be the way to exit the building, it's locked. The second floor consists of nothing but twenty bedrooms. Each room has one queen sized bed, an empty dresser, and an attached bathroom with only a sink, toilet, and shower. Like the first floor, each bedroom has drawn pictures that show it looking much more lavish than it actually does. Thanks for nothing, artist! The third floor only has two rooms. One appears to be a home office with nothing but a desk and two chairs, one behind it and one in front of it. While there's blank pieces of paper and crayons on the desk, the note that was previously there is gone. The other room is much larger, and it's completely empty save for the many drawings lining its walls— in fact, the walls are covered in them, much more than in any other room. On closer inspection, though, it seems like these aren't actually drawings? The papers seem to be showing scenes from the living area. Everything from inside the hotel to the areas beyond the bridge are visible here. However, when curfew hits on Thursday nights, they revert to being normal drawings! Except for the fact that they're all drawings of stick figures being murdered in various ways. Well. At least there's plenty of things to draw with, if you get bored. Also, a handy link to the previous post.

NAVIGATION locations ₓ˚. statuses *+:｡ ic profiles :ₓo ic rules ･ﾟﾟ･｡ audience requests murder proposals ｡✧o private conversations ･ﾟo｡ curfew ･ﾟ✧ memories

Comments

[laid]

[HM WOW HE DOESN'T LOVE THIS AT ALL? This animal is related to Hikaru, but it knows shit she doesn't know. He doesn't like that!! He doesn't like that at all. Because that means this is coming from his own head, thus;]

For you ta be asking that specifically, you've gotta already know the answer.
[He's just an empty shell, he's trying to be more, but it's too early to say that he's really changed.]

[heartablaze]

Even the emptiest of souls still stands on their own.

[sometimes we use the convenient backdrop of being in the Realm's Memory Bank Bridge for knowing everything when Hikaru is a clueless dumbass

anyway the dog just stares him down

they're waiting, whoever you are]

[laid]

[Well he doesn't like this conversation, and nothing happened when he took a step forward earlier, so he's gonna just try to ignore this psychic fire dog and try to walk over to Hikaru and crouch next to her?? Can he do this.]

[heartablaze]

[He can! She is alive and breathing, though her eyes have completely clouded over, and she will not respond to any external stimuli.

Doggo just watches.]

[laid]

[Lame??? Lame!!! He tries to shake her, call her name, and nothing. Nothing. Just keep breathing, she's not dead. She's still alive.]

Fine. You want a name? I'm just Raven now.
[Please. He just wants that to be true.]

[heartablaze]

[It seems to consider that for a moment.]

You wish to save those here from their fate, do you not?

[laid]

Of course I do. That's the only reason ta do anything, here.

[He doesn't care about coming back to life, but the same shouldn't be said for all the kids??? They shouldn't stay dead.]

[heartablaze]

[It stares him down.]

Long has this place existed, beyond the stretch of Mashin and mortal alike.

Raven.

Ơ̸̻̜̺̍͗̾j̸̬̮̄̑i̶̺͊̈́͜ͅ-̵͍̀s̵̨̺̲͛͊̅͂͝a̸̳͠n̴̨̝̻̺̲̍͐̈́͂.

Show what lies dormant beyond what the realm can reach, what it is that is worth rescuing when you deem yourself as unworthy. Prove to me the strength of thy heart.

[The path of flame will start to redirect, flowing only towards the open door.]

[laid]

[Wow!!! All of this sucks so much???? If he's relying on the strength of his heart then this isn't going to end well.

Still. He's been given a task. So he's going to do it. That's what tools are for. So he stands back up and goes to that dang door.]

[heartablaze]

[O ye of absolutely 0% faith.

He steps through the door, which quietly closes behind him.

Around him lies a fog of static and white noise. As he takes his first steps forward, he can feel a mix of metal and concrete underneath his feet, the unsteady feeling that comes with behind up somewhere high. There's the murmuring of a crowd around him, of many children, and of a beautiful blue sky. There's flickers of orange and white, of the reflection of glass.

He can hear the buzz of a radio, of the crown prince's marriage. It feels like a normal day. Normal news. You're excited to be here! Even if the voices you hear sound bored out of their minds.



Where are you, anyway?]

[laid]

[Excellent question??? He takes a step forward, trying to see if moving forward will make the static go away? He's looking all around, trying to get his bearings.

What prince is this? Does he know them.]

[heartablaze]

[He sure doesn't! He'll get the idea that they're pretty important, but the name doesn't sound familiar to Raven personally. What a weird place.

Taking a step forward does start to clear things just a little! The glass looks like windows of some sort, though he will need to approach them to get a better view.]

[laid]

[Stepping forward helps!!! So he will walk towards the window, towards clarity. Please. What can he see through the window!!]

[heartablaze]

[Quite the view! They're up pretty high, glimpses of orange and white framework just visible past the reaches of the glass. He must be in some sort of observatory deck.

The fashion all looks really funny compared to what Raven is probably used to. Several groups of what sounds to be adolescent kids are chattering, many of them in identical outfits, like a uniform of some sort. Some are green, some are blue, and some are a familiar bright red.]

[laid]

[HAHA YEAH WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS??? This building is so tall, he's never been in a building this tall, it's higher than Ghasfarost even. Myorzo doesn't count bc they're floating on a jellyfish.

But uniforms like Hikaru's, yeah? He'll just sorta drift the the nearest group that's talking and try to overhear their conversation.]

[heartablaze]

[It's a lot of girls! Mostly between the ages of 13 and 15. There's a group against the railing that are complaining about how boring of a field trip this is, uggggggh.

To the side, there's a flicker of orange light near a set of pay-to-use binoculars. As soon as Raven looks at it fully, it turns into an ethereal, ghostly form of Hikaru, leaning on the binoculars and looking over the view with her brow furrowed in pained concentration, like she can't really make out what she sees.

"God, this trip is so lame, don't you think, Hikaru???"

Hikaru doesn't answer.]

[laid]

[Yep, sounds like teenagers alright!! But the ghost Hikaru is!! weird??? So he's gonna go check that out?? He'll see if he can touch Hikaru at all, gently reaching for her shoulder??

But if that's a no go he's just gonna try to... shift over and look through the binoculars. Excuse me, ghost Hikaru.]

[heartablaze]

[He can touch her! Despite her appearance, she seems very solid! She starts a bit at the touch, recognition blossoming in her eyes.]

Oji-san... hey, I didn't know you were here, too.

Did you wanna take a look? I think I have a little more time left--

[Except, nah, there goes the little dinger and the dark flags over the visor. Hikaru's cheeks puff out in disappointment as she starts to dig through her pockets for change.

As busy as she is, she doesn't see the unrecognizable f̶̗͍͂͋͊́͜i̶̟̍̽g̸̰̲̱̞̈͝u̶̮̖̱͍̝̿̈͆r̴̘͛̈́̒͂͝ĕ̵̗̗̜̄͌͆ walk up to slip a coin into the slot with a firm clunk of metal against metal.

"There you go. That'll keep you plenty, right? My treat."

That... sounds like Claude. Doesn't it?]

[laid]

[Well that certainly isn't what he expected??? He hasn't spoken to the guy in a few weeks, but he knows that voice. And he knows he can't really be here, but;]

Claude?
[Sorry he can't pay attention to the binoculars right now he's too busy trying to fucking perceive this man who sounds like Claude?]

[heartablaze]

Huh??

[Hikaru looks up at Raven, confused, before looking back at the person in front of them. There's a flicker, that familiar mess of dark hair with a braid off one end, sunkissed skin and a lopsided smile that doesn't reach his eyes. He'll catch Raven's eye, just enough to give him a wink, before he turns around, tucking his arms behind his head as he walks off.

Hikaru doesn't seem to know quite who this is, just kind of gazing after him and looking very lost.]

...

That... was really nice of them, huh.

I should go thank them.

[laid]

[Hm. He just remembered that he hates this!! His face tightening, he just nods, and forces his usual smile back on his face.]

Sure. Hurry back.

[While she does that he's gonna look through the binoculars!! Hopefully there is a hint as to what he needs to do here.]

[heartablaze]

[She nods as she rushes off, past some lighthearted teasing from the other girls. Raven looks through the binoculars and sees

a mass of darkened land, rocks spiking like waves of the ocean, the clouds dark with piercing lightning. It's falling apart. It's all falling apart.

Maybe these binoculars are broken.]

[laid]

[HM THIS DEFINITELY DOES NOT MATCH WITH WHAT YOU CAN SEE OUT THE WINDOW? He'll look around the blasted wasteland for any signs of life until Hikaru comes back? When she does he'll dare to ask;]

Hikaru... what do ya see through these?

[heartablaze]

[Well she sure hasn't come back yet! It looks like another school came in while he was gazing out at the deep expanse of Nothing out there. It sure doesn't match what's on the binoculars, though, he is correct.

Though, huh. One of those kids in the new crowd is kind of on the shorter end, a tuft of brown hair and brown eyes with a red scarf around his neck that contrasts heavily with the school uniform he's in, talking all bravado in front of a girl a couple years older than him.

Karol sees Raven from a distance, a flicker of recognition, before it seems like Raven disappears from his view entirely. Someone sneaks up behind him and he nearly jumps five feet in the air, and several people laugh.]

[laid]

[Well so much for figuring that whole binoculars situation out?? Nothing else matters, frankly, because even though he knows deep down it can't be Karol, seeing a familiar face like that, after so long, after so much. He can't help but run over.]

Karol! Kid, is that you!?
[SIR??]