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

[suddenlybees]

[ He can enjoy a bonfire without eating anything but... sure.

Kano rolls over onto his back and points at the fire, gestures at everybody around him. ]

[heartablaze]

[Kano please learn that no is an acceptable answer i swear to god

She's already got the rest of the marshmallow in her mouth when she catches him gesturing, her brow furrowing.]

Mm? Wha' bou' vrybody 'mmls?

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano is nothing but accommodating u_u

He reaches out and pokes Hikaru's chipmunk cheeks ]

[heartablaze]

[Kano has used that icon so much at hikaru in regards to charades in the last 48 hours that im surprised he is still even allowing this

Anyway congrats she doesn't stop him and therefore nearly spits marshmallow right into the sand. She absolutely can't throw him her normal pout with her mouth full but she is TRYING. Her marshmallow :(]

[suddenlybees]

[ That's what she gets for stuffing her mouth so full. He pokes her cheek again, a little harder but not enough to hurt. ]

[heartablaze]

[She clamps her mouth extra tight this time, so he'll get a dumb little whistle of air and her blowing out a gurgling exhale of a laugh through her nose, but that's about it.

She takes his finger with her entire hand and just holds his arm straight up in the air while she forces herself to chew and swallow. Meanie. Let her finish.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Here's her "no"

Kano has two hands and Hikaru has two cheeks and with his free hand he pokes her other one. ]

[heartablaze]

[Ha ha she has swallowed enough marshmallow that this is no longer an issue and she just swallows again and sticks her tongue out at him, before grabbing his other hand and hoisting it up.]

If I ask you nicely to stop, will you think about it?

[suddenlybees]

[ Hmmmmmmmmmmm

He pretends to think about it, and then shakes his head. Nah :P

I was going to have him try to hoist her up in the air but 1) he is a noodle boy and there is no way, and 2) he is still lying on the ground for this entire conversation ]

[heartablaze]

[SIGHS.

Her hands are occupied and her face says to not let that go, so she will just lean down and gently thunk him on the forehead with her own forehead instead, before sitting right back up.]

Weirdo.

Do you want me to go get you that cup or not?

[suddenlybees]

[ me wailing over forehead thunks

He will accept being a weirdo, though, because there's no way he can deny that. He nods for the cup and returns to lying on the ground, curled up on his side. ]

[heartablaze]

[nothing says cr bonding like attempts at minor concussions

She goes to get a cup! Its like one of those souvenir "pay 50 bucks but get cheaper refills" things, but she chucks the lid and the oversized neon straw into the garbage and drops it in his line of view.]

...Hey, you okay?

[suddenlybees]

[ He starts a little when the cup gets set in front of him, like he'd been lost in thought and hadn't noticed her return, and it takes a second longer before the question registers and he nods his response.

It's fine. Nothing he really likes talking about, not in public surrounded by a bunch of people, not at all.

Hesitantly, he rolls over onto his back and sets the cup down at his side so he can put his hands together, thumbs crossed and fingers spread out on either side, and flap his fingers over his stomach. ]

[heartablaze]

[Hm.

She settles back into her original seat as she plops back down into the sand, carefully taking off another piece of sausage. Do you realize it's Thursday and she has only now bandaged her shoulder finally? Haha wow. No extra blood for blood gods right this second.

Anyway, here is your meat piece, meat man.]

We can go back inside a little later, if you want. I know you didn't look like you wanted to be out here all that much.

I think everyone's just trying not to think about tomorrow as best as they can.

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano busies himself with peeling the outer casing off of the sausage and not eating it. He really does not like being outside with everybody! But he is here anyways...

Tomorrow's really going to suck, waiting with bated breath who is dead and who might have killed them- hoping that certain people are killers is never something he wants to do, and that makes his stomach turn.

Also the very real belief that all of this is fake and all these deaths will happen and nobody will get brought back to life. People don't get brought back to life!! There is literally zero proof any of this will happen, and Kano cannot believe in promises he can't make happen himself. ]

[heartablaze]

[He's definitely far more distracted than normal.

She pops a piece of sausage in her own mouth, wiping her fingers off on her skirt before reaching over to carefully brush his bangs out of his face.]

[suddenlybees]

[ He flinches- in the way where he reflexively draws back when somebody is reaching for his face, obscuring his eyes, and he's lying on the ground with nowhere to run. It's a tender gesture and he does not know what to do with it.

Everything is distressing and confusing and I will also be working during this trial so Kano tomorrow will just be wrapped up in a blanket lying on his side staring at whatever happens and saying nothing. ]

[heartablaze]

[She will sit next to mister burrito tomorrow it's ok I'll make sure he is there in the meta just for cardori.

She keeps her hand there, barely against his temple, if only to make sure he knows where it is, that she's not going to hurt him. Her voice grows quiet, but doesn't waver.]

Does it feel wrong, to be out here like this when we have a lot resting on tomorrow?

[suddenlybees]

[ Bless you, he will be a warm cozy burrito who is just inwardly vibrating the entire time.

But it's sort of... He reaches up for her hand, not to move it away really but so he can trace a word onto it:

"useless"

That's the crux of how it feels. They're all collecting nova, trying to keep the world from falling apart, but without anything to show for it all he can feel is uselessness. Faithless. How could he leave his fate in somebody else's hands? ]

[heartablaze]

[...

Her fingers tighten a little, but she doesn't move them, trying to stay very aware of just how close she is to his neck wound like this. ]

It's hard, to have to wait and not do it all by yourself. But... at the absolute least,, I trust Goat. Goat's in a lot of danger right now, and he's injured, and he can't hide his face... but he still trusts the people who are left to make the right choice.

They wouldn't be trying to keep talking to us, to be doing all of this, if they didn't want the same goal in the end. And for us...

We did the best we could. I... I hate we can't do more right now. It really is hard to feel like we're not able to help anymore.

But we'll get through tomorrow, and we'll get through the weekend... and no matter what happens, we'll find a way out of it.

I'll have hope, Shuuya. Even if it seems hopeless.

[Even if it all feels useless.]

[suddenlybees]

[ That amount of hope is incomprehensible, why he calls Hikaru stupid. Goat is in danger but so are all of them, everybody here in the graveyard who can only reach the living in broken up messages and not know how much is actually getting through, how much will be heeded, whether they will stay true.

In the end, he can't trust the way Hikaru can. He can't help but want to take matters into his own hands. Then, when everything falls apart, he will only have himself to blame.

"What can we do"

Is there anything more they can do? ]

[heartablaze]

Right now?

...

I know it's not something you wanna hear. But... we rest, and we make sure the people who might arrive to join us know as much as they absolutely can. We make sure we know as much as we can in return. We finish as much of the puzzle as we can.

When our road opens up, we'll follow it with as clear a gaze as we can manage. And... I think, maybe, we'll have to prepare to lose even more of ourselves to this monster, before we triumph.

[Her expression hardens.]

If it doesn't happen at all, though... if we've really missed our chance, and our path never comes...

We'll make a new one, Shuuya. With our own bare hands, if we absolutely have to. I'm not gonna let this place be our ending.

[suddenlybees]

[ This is all so idealistic, it's hard to have faith. It's hard not to be frustrated, hearing that all they can do is rest, to sit around and do nothing and carry on as they have until some inevitable end.

He waits for her shoujo hero speech to finish before writing on her hand

"can't lose any more memories"
"refuse"

He has fully intact memories but he will not! lose any of them!! he refuses. Even before he died he had set up contingency measures not to lose any of them, and then he died and couldn't so it didn't even matter. ]

[heartablaze]

[She watches him just slowly sour the longer she goes, but is it truly a surprise at this point?]

Then don't. Fight for them.

...

I know that's easier said than done right now, and I'm just telling you a lot and none of it is, um... tangible. But...

If you could do anything right now... what would you want to do?

Would you wanna burn this place down? Slam down the walls of the house to try to find what's beyond the borders, try to find the leaders or the realm or the monster and let yourself face it all without bothering to know why?

Or would you want to make sure you had some sort of plan... if not for yourself, then for everybody you care about?

[Because as much as she calls him a dummy, as much as he calls himself useless... he hides a clever and desperate mind behind everything else.]

[suddenlybees]

[ He does want to burn the entire place down, yeah. But only as a statement; in practicality, it's a waste of his efforts, and he is not the sort of person to pour energy towards something without reason.

It takes him a bit to come up with his answer, but in the end, it's

"I'll think of one"

He's already thinking of one- nothing concrete, lots of backup plans, mostly he wants to find the monster and punch it on the nose and tell it to stop? Can't make a plan without information, though, and their source is still their leaders.

"We'll see what tomorrow brings."

No other choice but that. ]