GRAVEYARD

[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, 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

Comments

[heartablaze]

[Mm. She nods her understanding, a little sad, but kind of relieved.]

Okay.

The second thing, then... was it about your heart, or about you...? The, um... [She puts her right hand against her chest.] That one.

[suddenlybees]

[ Um, hm.

He holds up one finger, but also does the wobbly hand gesture. His heart but sort of? Not literally his heart, but his...? ]

[heartablaze]

[Oh, yes she understands wobbly hand, the universal sign of "ehhhhhhhh kind of".]

Like... your feelings? That kind of heart?

[suddenlybees]

[ That's it. His feelings, about all of this- of somebody doing this to him, to this degree of brutality- it's a bit complicated to put into words, much less charades.

So instead, what he offers Hikaru is a dejected smile, and holds out his hand. ]

[heartablaze]

[Ah. Something about that smile hits her visibly.

Still, she doesn't hesitate at all to take his hand, squeezing it tight.]

We don't have to talk about it, then. Or... I guess, I don't have to talk about it. It's okay.

[suddenlybees]

[ He never wants to talk about this; there's no point, and it doesn't change anything. But Hikaru guessed his meanings correctly, so the least he can do is give her a definitive answer.

He squeezes her hand back, and then loosens his grip- doesn't let go, but so he can turn her hand around and trace onto the palm of her hand what I really hope is the correct kanji I'm copypasting:

天命 ]

[heartablaze]

...

[It's an answer that hits hard, one that flashes bubbling sorrow up through her eyes even though she tries her best to keep it from blurting out her mouth.]

Shuuya... that's not...

...

[He doesn't deserve this. But she knows she can't tell him that, and her words halt, her eyes screwing shut as she tries to let her emotions form words without shoving him into the ground.

Is what's most important to her worth ignoring everyone else's feelings?

...

She swallows, her hand tense under his own, flinching in pain as she brings her left hand to weakly rest against his wrist.]

You... you can't do what you need to do, if this is...

[If he was right, if this was "tenmei" - his fate - then...

How would the dragon ever face the gods he despised, if they'd already snuffed him out?]

[suddenlybees]

[ It's with quiet resignation that he smiles, hopeless, faithless, but he shakes his head all the same. He imagines he would have thought just the same before, that it'd be impossible for him to achieve what he needed to do if this... if he... there's a brief touch to his left elbow, before he pulls his hand away again.

He takes a step back away from Hikaru and makes his motions slow and deliberate:

He hooks his pinkies together.

Holds his hand up and traces a cross from forehead to chest, shoulder to shoulder.

Brings both hands up to his temples, pointer finger straight up while the rest of his fingers curl into fists.

And finally, he drops his hands, and points at Hikaru. ]

[heartablaze]

[She has to try not to jump to conclusions. But her eyes are glassy as she tries to read it out, tries to voice it as he goes along.]

You promised something. To...

...God? And to...

...To Goat, maybe?

And to...

T-to me...

[Her lip quivers for a moment before her jaw tightens, hands clenching against her chest, but unwilling to say anything else. Not until he's had a chance to correct her.]

[suddenlybees]

[ There's surprisingly not a lot to correct; Hikaru is very close.

He holds up four fingers, tapping each of them in turn and shaking his head at the first two but nodding at the last two.

He tries again:

A handshake in front of his chest, as best he can with two hands that don't match up.

A cross over his chest, followed by circles over his hands that he holds over his eyes.

A pair of horns pointing straight up by his temples.

And lastly, he points to Hikaru. ]

[heartablaze]

...Heh... Shiro-san. The second one is Shiro-san.

[She wipes at her eyes for a moment.]

You didn't promise, then... [Which is true - the only things he ever promised her, he's kept so far...] So... a different word. Like... agreed?

[suddenlybees]

[ It's Shiro. Him and Goat and now Hikaru... some sort of agreement.

He places his hand flat on his chest and then curls his fingers into a fist before holding his fist straight out towards Hikaru. ]

[heartablaze]

[There's a little bit of a broken laugh as she nods and returns the fist with one of her own, shaking as she presses it against his, then gently bops it again from the top, and from the bottom.

I want you to have a chance.]

[suddenlybees]

[ .................HE FORGOT ABOUT THE STUPID SECRET HANDSHAKE and sort of laughs in surprise at it as he returns the motions, but this is better than whatever he was trying to convey ]

[heartablaze]

[She's oblivious as usual and just jumps back as he laughs and blood just spurts back down his shirt.]

A-aah, no, Shuuya... Shuuya, don't, y-your neck...!

[god there's so much blood they really need to find him a bucket

she mostly just looks embarrassed again]

I-I... did I get it wrong again???

[suddenlybees]

[ They should not find him a bucket; he would just fill it up and wait for Vezda to walk below him from the stairs and empty it out over his head.

He shakes his head, though! Even if she got it completely wrong and also he can't stop laughing.

He holds up two fingers. ]

[heartablaze]

[SHUUYA YOUR BLOOD

She just. Keeps her hand against her mouth, still caught somewhere between being horrified and embarrassed.

Two what, two nothing, he's laughing and drowning in his own blood atm.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Two means two!! He sure is drowning in his own blood, he can't breathe or draw breath to laugh properly and everything pretty much sucks

gurgles

WHENEVER HE CALMS DOWN... eventually... he holds up his two fingers again and like... makes scissor cutting motions, but with his fingers still pointed straight up. ]

[heartablaze]

[THIS IS AWFUL WEH

Once he finally calms down, she's grabbing for his water bottle and shoving it back into his hands. Please wash your mouth out again before she watches you drown in your own blood and laughter.]

Two of something... two things coming together?

Or do you mean actually cutting something?

[suddenlybees]

[ He holds up one finger, takes the water bottle, and proceeds to just hold it in his lap instead of rinsing out his mouth. It's okay, the blood will eventually drain out of his open throat and he'll stop drowning eventually too.

He points to her, and does a little fistpump by his side. ]

[heartablaze]

[...]

Me and you, huh?

[It's complicated, more than they can reasonably talk about like this. But she still gives him a smile.]

I'd like that a lot.

[suddenlybees]

[ Two stupid children who can't even understand what each other is saying on a normal day, vowing to fight god together

He smiles back and— you know what, he's going to borrow her hands for this one, he makes a fist with one of her hands and positions it in front her chest and does the same with his own fist in front of his chest, and then with his free hand draws out an arc from his fist to hers. ]

[heartablaze]

[her first thought: aw, heart rainbow :)

She stays pliant as he fusses with her hands, though she winces when her shoulder has to move a little too much.]

A connection between you and I... I don't know if that's what you meant, but... I understand.

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano would purposely choose her injured side, yes.

He also makes this face, because she doesn't understand at all. She literally just said so. ]

[heartablaze]

[A weak laugh.]

Okay, um, maybe not. [DO YOU SENSE A TREND HERE.]

Something between you and me, though.