graveyard

[mygod]

Graveyard

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the town

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post one

Welcome to Deda

So, you're dead. Sucks!

Except you might not feel dead—after what feels like a long brush with dreamless sleep, you wake up in a quaint hole: a coffin in an uncovered grave, blanketed in fog. Entombed with you are any personal items (unless they're trial evidence, sorry), and a strange feeling of... lightness? Whatever corruption was in your blood seems to have cleared away with your death, and your injuries are healed, besides any cool scars and lingering aches.

Once you make your way out, a quiet, verdant graveyard (literal) awaits you. You could take a look around the various locations, but the same fog that greeted you surrounds this place, keeping you from venturing too far outside of the town limits.

Still, you may as well get yourself situated. You're not done yet.

Welcome to the graveyard! Here's a quick primer:

You are dead. However, characters are healed of their critical injuries; they may keep any scars or lingering pains that you like. Additionally, they are no longer corrupted. The monstrous force inside you has subsided; this means characters will no longer have powers, etc.

● Setting ● The graveyard has the overall look and feel of a small New England town from the '90s; characters can travel any of the Graveyard Locations, fenced in by fog and forests. But the fog makes this place otherworldly, and strangely permeable. Maybe you can influence your surroundings?

● Living Watch ● Where there are screens, you can view the living side. This includes televisions at the bar, Heaven's Night, and in the apartment lobby—you may even spot a passing glimpse of them in a mirror or glass of water. Only public gatherings like mingles, trial, etc, can be seen and heard this way.

● Items ● Personal inventory transfers over to the graveyard, including items that may be stolen during trial. The only items that stay on the living side are ones that are voluntarily given away. Thursday victims will receive their items in their rooms on Sunday, after Execution. Those who arrive any other day will have their items in their grave with them.

● Injuries and Death ● Characters can still be injured and die here. While characters do not stay dead, please let the mods know if it does happen, so we can inform you of how it works.

● Audiences ● You can audience Death in person, but none of the other NPCs are currently available. You can ignore the note section and go to the apartment penthouse directly to visit, or meet him wherever.

● Effects and Events ● Weekly effects still hit the graveyard, and you may use items on the living unless otherwise noted. Mini-events will go up at the same time as their living counterparts. CYOAs are still available for our sweet deda.

● OOC Notes ● Alluding to the fact that the graveyard exists OOCly is okay, but please keep details of what it looks like, what happens here, plot, et cetera, to yourselves. Feel free to ask the mods if you're not sure about anything!

scawwy mygod
gy locations ✦ locations ✦ statuses ✦ ic profiles
Audiences ✦ reporting ✦ private conversations
murder proposals ✦ rulebook

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FULL NAVIGATION

Comments

[intrapid]

[ Karma looks almost disappointed, for a second, before his expression softens into a smile. ]

Yeah, we're back.

[ He stands in the doorway, wavering, but doesn't move, knowing that Erin will pinch him or worse if he takes another step inside. ]

Can we talk? Outside?

[mygod]

[ it's not easy to resist the pull of peace after everything that's happened. the apartment is clear in erin's memory too, but it is... horrible. why would either of them want to go back to such a terrible place?

kate pauses, then sets aside a book that she was reading, walking over to them as she smooths her dress down from where it's gathered a few wrinkles. erin's medallion shivers a little more.

but they can talk outside, yeah. further from the mystery rock.

"That was a long time to be gone running errands... are you okay?"

—a world where karma never died. where that blood isn't on erin's hands, and that memory isn't lodged in his mind. that's what kate is talking about, in a way offering it to them as the truth. ]

[underinworld]

Yeeeeeah, doing peachy.

[She says that a little bit awkwardly, looking in direction of the rock that was over there. How does that look like? Anything noticeable?]

[intrapid]

[ It's already the truth, though. Karma may have died, but he's not dead. It wasn't Erin's fault, but that of the monster inside her. And as long as he doesn't think of it during the day, as long as he exhausts himself into a dreamless sleep at night, that memory can lodge itself as deep as it'd like. ]

Everything is just fine.

[ Karma throws a glance over at the book "Kate" was reading, honestly more interested in that than some stupid rock, but holds his hand out for "Kate" to take. They won't go far from the cabin. He glances at Erin, down towards wherever she has the medallion, back up at her: he'll separate "Kate" and the cabin; Erin he'll entrust with figuring out which the medallion is reacting to, and what secrets this sweet unreality is trying to hide from them. ]

[mygod]

[ the splitting up approach, nice.

erin can investigate the stone. it looks like a paperweight—an ordinary sort of rock, with some etchings in it. but much like the wednesday tomes, it feels as though there's something ancient about this, and perhaps the key to leaving.

however, it's not a promise. it is an uncertain exit; it's not nice like the village they're in, and the life she could have here. just something ordinary. nothing to push and pull her onto different paths, each more insane than the next; here, she can just live. the fire feels warm, and the seat by it is so comforting. it'd be incredibly easy to ignore the stone, and karma outside, and just give herself a moment's rest, especially after that nasty apartment they were just in. this place knows she's been trying so hard. has anyone acknowledged that? this place does.

she has a couple options here. she can sit and take a break by the fire, she can check her candle and see how that's going, or anything else.

as for karma and "kate"—without erin, the candle, or a medallion, he will find it very difficult to keep his head on straight. the allure of the living side is in full blast right now; the truth doesn't have to be the truth. it can be whatever he picks, whatever he wants. the memories of the monsters and the curses in the apartment start to fade, and he will have to struggle to keep them. he will have to fight it, and maybe even her. "kate" gives his hand a little squeeze, dark soot gently starting to flow from her hair, bit by bit.

"...Is something wrong?" ]

[underinworld]

[It's a comforting temptation, to want to bury her head in the sand. Takes all of her stubborn willpower to keep the desire to sit there away. It's so hard.

Probably is only thanks to Erin's stubbornness that she can do even this much. The same willpower that enabled her to keep the monster possesssing her at bay for the night before the execution! But, well...probably doesn't speak well that in the end, even that strong willpower eroded enough to start losing. When it's a constant battle, attrition settles in.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she knows if she can't stay lucid, she probably will fall into all this and never return -- and chances are, staying too long will make such a moment inevitable. Picking up the rock, she pockets it, forcing herself to turn her head away from the promise of comfort and peace, returning towards Karma, albeit a little slowly like she's doing something she doesn't truly want to do.

May as well check the candle, let's see how that's going!]

[intrapid]

[ Why would he fight it? when is it ever even a choice? Reality is what he experiences, it's the present, it's Kate's hand in his and warm sunlight on his face, it's the easy way that ] Huh? No, nothing's wrong. [ slips from his lips even as it serves as a needling thought: is something wrong? the fact that nothing is wrong is wrong. that's not how it should be, but is what it is. ]

No... This place is wrong.

[ his head hurts. ]

It's too good to be true, and that alone makes it impossible to not be on guard. Haha... nice of you to go easy on us.

[ his grip in Kate's tightens. he looks at Erin, then back to Kate. ]

So tell me. Who are you?

[mygod]

[ when erin pockets the stone, she feels a little lighter, contrarily. not better, but there is something to being stubborn to your true self, even when the going gets very tough. she feels more disconnected from this place, more aware of how unreal it is.

"...What kind of question is that?"

and even without all the aids available to them to help karma ply himself free of the dream, he persists in realizing the truth and trying to perceive it. it gives him a killer migraine, trying to see what's really there, but he can spot it in glimpses: the way the buildings are older, rust-bloomed, the ground turned to barren dirt instead of grass. the way that kate's hand doesn't feel quite right when he squeezes it, like it's softer than it should be. her voice distorts, the illusion fading now that both of them are so soundly rejecting it, choosing the harsh reality of their situation instead.

"I'm what you wanted."

it's a brave effort, but—again, he doesn't have anything that was meant to protect him right now. erin can start to see this too, the cracks and grime in the gentle illusion.

but most importantly, when she rounds back over, in the candlelight, they can both see that "kate" looks different. she moves with a sound like a screaming kettle, like smoke through a vent. but it's a little too late to stop her upper half from bursting outward into burning soot and smoke, sharp and blackened ribs enclosing around karma in an instant, like an embrace. ]

[underinworld]

Oh flip!

[Worst hug ever, probably.

The brief relief in feeling lighter was quickly overcome with alarm, of course. The things that hide under gentle illusion, goodness gracious! Lacking a weapon, not having anything, she just...a bit desperate, she grips the medallion in her hand and tries to get the ribs off Karma, pulling from them with her bare hands. Even though she already burned one and it's likely being in contact with this thing will be harmful, that's of
little concern when Karma is, you know, in this kind of problem!]

Karma, run as soon as you can!

[intrapid]

[ Karma has not had very many hugs, but this is, in fact, the worst one he's ever had.

He had been prepared for a fight, had taken "Kate"s hand in a vise grip to limit her movement and keep her from escaping, but he hadn't counted on 1) her body splitting open like a venus flytrap, nor 2) the fact that that hand in his is what keeps him from escaping, from ducking and pulling away and nearly wrenching his arm out of its socket in a reflex borne of self-preservation and fear.

Black ribs snap around Karma's entire body, intent on swallowing him whole, but his desperate escape attempt rewards him only with a rib punched through his throat, a second one glancing off his face to tear through his eye, an unbearable flare of heat and nausea that courses up from the pit of his stomach- bile and blood, hot and dark. This close to the furnace, Erin can see the tears prick at the back of his remaining eye, and when he opens his mouth, it's with a helpless gurgle, blood pouring down his chin like sludge.

She hadn't been there for his final moments that last time, but she can see it again now: just a boy, a normal middle school student, lost and frightened. she can hear the thumps of desperate kicking from within the monster's belly, dull and hollow like a wine barrow. she can see bloody fingers scritch-scratching at the monster's maw, blindly grabbing at the ribs, at Erin's fingers, trying to pry open its jaws with his failing strength. she can imagine his voice, if he had one, screaming out for anyone to help, if only there were anybody who could.

she can see him get swallowed up by the darkness, waves of shadow and bone over his head, sinking, drowning.

gone. ]

[mygod]

[ she can see that much, and that's it. there's no mistaking what's happened. karma is dead.

the black ribs and burning soot encompass her hands and arms as she tries to free him, but they threaten to pull her in as well. both of them, lost to this place. just a second too late to save themselves. ...but in the final moment, the candle burns out, the remaining medallion cracks against her palm, and the weight of the stone in her pocket seems like enough to pull her free of this nightmare. all at once, the smoke clears.

erin will find herself collapsed back at the apartments, which look normal again. she's chosen to step back into reality, and all the horrors that await her here: the first of which is karma's absence.

as for their reward, in her hands is a small, slate-like rock, with runes and images carved into it. from it, she can feel the potent thrum of magical energy, but to what end, she won't know from just a touch. more research may be required.

you may both keep custody of this, or otherwise do what you please! if it does change hands away from one of them, please let us know. good job breaking into this super normal building! ]