retellers | GRAVEYARD

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, but it leads you to somewhere that's not the front lawn.

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. On the desk are some blank pieces of paper along with crayons, as well as a written note next to them that says PLEASE DRAW THE PREFERRED ANIMAL :). It looks like this is how you ask for a meeting with a Leader.

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.

As of Week 3, each person has the ability to send messages on their PHS unlocked.

NAVIGATION

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Oh my god.]

H-Hey, please! Wait up!

[If she doesn't stop running, she is absolutely going to vault over the nearest obstacle to try and cut her off. Girl. Please.]

[Vault successful! Hikaru's sword is up on reflex, a tired attempt to parry and push herself into another direction in the town. But she sees who it is in front of her and her eyes flash with recognition, getting her to stumble and faceplant directly into a wall, head over heels onto the ground. Her sword goes skidding away across the street.

She looks about on the verge of tears as she rights herself, like she's looking at a ghost.]

Y... Yoshizawa-chan...

[Oh, thank goodness. The sword gets totally ignored in favor of rushing over to Hikaru, offering her a hand up.]

Shidou-san... [AHHHHH.] You're safe now, I promise! You don't have to run anymore.

[Sumi's mouth opens, and those glassy eyes cloud over almost immediately, like Hikaru is drifting off to sleep for a moment. But she snaps back almost as fast, and the hand is ignored as Hikaru scrambles to her feet and takes Sumi by the shoulders, tears streaming down her face.]

You... Y-Yoshizawa-chan, i-it's really---

Y-You're not hurt?? You're okay????? You really feel okay???

[Oh. Guess she's being taken by the shoulders now. That's fine.]

Y-Yes, it's really me! [Reaching up to gently grip both of Hikaru's forearms, trying to be reassuring.] I'm okay, and so is everyone else. Are you okay? You don't feel, ah, itchy?

[She shakes her head. Kind of. She's just openly crying now as she talks.]

Th-they were right, you-- th-there's really a chance...!

[They have had uno conversations before this, but that doesn't stop Hikaru from pulling Sumi fully into her arms for a moment, as though the emotion of it all overwhelms her completely. Hugging... :(]

I knew it, I knew you couldn't be gone forever, I knew it--!!

[THAT, TOO, IS FINE. She gets it, really, and will shift her hold on her to wrap her arms around her as well. Hikaru seems to be really going through it, so she will focus on gently rubbing circles on her back, trying to soothe her.]

Mm, of course they were right! Nobody will be left behind. We won't quit until we get this right.

[She just nods viciously, still crying, almost laughing in relief, like the emotion is just spilling out of her like an overflowing pot.

Sorry, Sumi, she's gonna need a second to collect herself. At least Fire Dog is still there, the fire Very Intense, but its tail is wagging so that's a very good sign.

After a minute or so, she'll push herself away, wiping at her eyes with the cuffs of her sleeves, face still tight with emotion but very purposefully trying to drag it all back in. She would have to find her time later. If Sumi was in front of her...]

Who... who hurt you, Yoshizawa-chan? Did they ask you? Did they tell you what was happening to you...?

[Fire dog is a good boy. Yoshizawa's own daemon may have wandered off for part of this thread because I, Kyuu, forgot about it — but there is now a baby phoenix gently flitting around her shoulders. Vibing.]

Huh?

[Oh. Right. The way she died. Though it might surprise Hikaru, Yoshizawa shakes her head.]

No one hurt me. I was aware my nova was splintering, so I, ah... I used my rapier to fake a fight, and helped the person who was sent after me so they would survive.

[It is, indeed, a surprise. But it's brief, only replaced by a tired, almost empathetic stare, pained as it is.]

You knew, too...

A lot of people thought that... whoever attacked you was really cruel to you. They could tell it was your sword that was used, but because of what happened to you, and how thin your weapon was...

...

A lot of people were really, really upset, because they thought you really suffered when you died... and we couldn't find anything else, to show what happened.

... Yes, I was told.

[A little bit sheepish. A little bit tired.]

Honestly, I didn't mean to cause such a stir. But at that time, all I could think about was how unfair it was. I didn't mind that I had to die, but I didn't want them to be punished for doing the right thing.

Did they tell you what was happening? Or did... you already know, before?

I had learned about the splintering beforehand, so... it wasn't difficult to realize what was happening when neither of us fell asleep. They just confirmed my suspicions.

...Mm. That's what happened with me, too. Nii-chan told me about what happened to him, so when I really started feeling funny... I tried to let somebody know.

Do you think you were affected by someone else's splintering, or something else entirely...? What was said in trial sounded so different from what I experienced.

I don't really know. I was feeling weird on Monday, but... it was different. It wasn't my memory. More like, um... like something inside me was telling me I had to stay calm, no matter how I felt about anything. Even when I was really angry or scared... I couldn't do anything.

The day before I died is when I forgot a lot. Stuff I knew, where I was, who I was talking to...

I... also had trouble touching things. Like things would disappear in my hands, like how the buildings were sometimes a couple weeks ago...

[... Hm. That's a lot! Yoshizawa frowns, thinking.]

This may sound like a strange question, but have you received a strange message on Monday of any week? Or heard of someone who has?

No, not at all... the only messages I got was the one from Oji-san and the ones when the Realm gave us things for collecting nova...

Why?

Well... On Mondays, certain people have received a message with a mysterious prompt. The message itself is vague, but they're asked to provide someone's name. Whoever they select is inflicted by a strange effect. This is what happened to Hua Cheng-san and Claude-san a number of weeks ago, as well as when Shima-san was, ah— suddenly attached to Zuko-san?

I think something similar may have happened to you.

...Oh. You mean when Nii-chan and Hua-chan were fighting each other, right?

I... someone had told me that was an ability of some kind for that. Were they wrong?

They may have misinterpreted the source.

[Though, she can't blame them considering all the items and shit flying around.]

Shima-san was the one who cause that, ah, particular effect. Though, he didn't know what offering their names would do until he saw them at trial.

GRAVEYARD

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject