GRAVEYARD ✨

[probe]

POPULATION: GHOST TOWN

You die - and then you wake up.

For a second, it feels as though you can't breathe, and then your head breaks the surface. You crawl out of a pool of blood and into a large, crystalline room. Moving images play across the crystal walls, and if you watch close enough, you'll realize that you're seeing the land of the living; a familiar space station with familiar faces. You can watch these images for as long as you'd like - there are several very large benches (as in, you have to climb them to sit on them) around the room for you to rest on while you do.

Regardless of how you died, it seems as though you're not quite gone completely. You're in one piece, at least. That's good news. However, your surroundings are not exactly what you remember.

When you exit the first room, a bleak, empty city sprawls out ahead of you.

The city itself is large. The framework of it seems to tower higher and higher than you can see, up into the black opal sky that shivers and curls every so often. A river entirely made of blood runs through the city, winding around buildings and ending at the crystal room. The most noticeable thing about the buildings themselves is the fact that thorny vines made of pure white steel dig into the walls and floor, cracking the foundations.

The residential building is worn down and old. It's two floors, and has a few small studio apartments built for one or two people to live in. The beds are extremely uncomfortable. It has a communal area downstairs, but the TV is broken, and the couches are torn apart. Sometimes, this building feels obscenely hot in temperature, and smells like rotten eggs.

The grocery store is your typical convenience store. There's a large selection of food in this area, but it all tastes the same - like chalk. On top of this, every so often there will be bloodstains on the walls, the floor, and the displays. They change in size and location, each time you enter the store.

The clothing store is thrifty in nature. All the clothes here are uncomfortable and scratchy, and don't fit quite right. While you're here, time feels... weird. Distorted, almost dreamy. As you're picking out clothes and trying them on (no money needed, just take what you want), you swear you can hear a gunshot in the distance.

Enjoy your time in this city, and remember...your story isn't quite over yet.

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Comments

[brightred]

[Grell immediately backhands him across the face.]

[holeful]

[Oh my god. Down he fucking goes, onto the ground.

And then he looks up, and his expression lightens, but also he is confused.]

Miss Grell?

[brightred]

Who told you you could kill yourself? [She is stepping on his stomach with one stiletto-heeled boot.]

[holeful]

[He is not resisting at all.]

Well, I had to die so Omi could leave, so...

cw: suicide

[brightred]

[There's a flash of a memory that isn't Fukuda's, suddenly.

"Why me?" you ask, looking up from the papers in your hand to meet the eyes of the woman standing in front of you (they're the same two-tone bright green that yours are now, behind the same wire-rimmed glasses that perch uncomfortably on your nose).

"Understand, Mr. Sutcliff," she says, stern as she looks you over with a frown. "This is not a second chance. This is the punishment for suicide."

Grell doesn't seem to notice the memory, she just presses the heel of her shoe a little more strongly into his stomach.]

Then you should have made him kill you. He's going to kill someone or die eventually anyway.

cw: suicide also

[holeful]

[Ah. Well. That explains some things.]

... Sorry, miss Grell. It's just...
[He smiles up at her, sad, hapless, apologetic.]

It's easier to do something when you've already tried it before, don't you think?

[brightred]

[She just pulls her foot back to kick him in the side. Not like, a lot. Just enough to be rude.]

Then give him the chance to try killing someone!

[holeful]

[Oof! He just continues to lie there.]

Omi already has.

[brightred]

[Kicks him again for good measure!]

Pathetic.

But all of those idiots are even worse, they're not even trying to solve these murders.

[holeful]

[He just lets it happen.]

We really did try, miss Grell. I tried really hard to solve yours, too. But I couldn't. I'm sorry.

[brightred]

And yet I don't see that woman here in the afterlife with us.

[holeful]

[HE SAID HE COULDN'T SOLVE IT?? PLEASE.]

So it was a woman, after all? ... Can I ask what happened?

[brightred]

Ugh. You couldn't figure that out either?

[But because it's Fukuda, he'll get an actual answer out of her.]

I was awake after that obnoxious Thursday night noise routine, so I went to see what was going on. [she's nosy okay]

That woman challenged me to a fight to the death, so we made it a little more interesting. But I wasn't expecting her sword to break that easily. After all~ I'm used to opponents with more stamina~

But--it's so embarrassing!-- I lost my balance and fell, then that woman set me on fire.

[holeful]

[Well. Most of that lines up with what they did figure out, at least.]

What woman, miss Grell?

[brightred]

[I'm sorry does she look like someone who bothered to learn anyones names??]

That dancer woman, with the brown hair.

[holeful]

.... Miss Primrose?

[He actually finally sits up.]

So I was right, after all...

[brightred]

And yet, she isn't here.

[holeful]

I'm sorry, it wasn't something I was sure about... So I didn't say anything. And I didn't want to accuse miss Primrose, especially since we thought that you.... that it was self defense.

[brightred]

What about that entire situation seemed like self-defense to you? She burned me alive!

[holeful]

... I can’t remember all that well, we got so distracted by the Toblerones...


But I guess mostly just your general personality?

[brightred]

The toblerones?

Oh, right, that man's pathetic murder attempt.

[holeful]

Ah, right... do you know what happened with Kaz? I’d ask him but he’s difficult to get straight answers out of.

[brightred]

He tried to beat that handsome man with the long shovel... Ming Yi? to death with chocolate bars, but failed, and got himself killed in retribution. No wonder he's been claimed by Sloth.

[holeful]

[Fukuda looks so deflated.]

We weren’t even close... we thought the wrong one was self defense... And then mr Vlad tried to frame Ming Yi... we could have voted for a killer again...
[SIGHS.]

I’m sorry I didn’t bring up miss Primrose. But everyone probably would have shot me down anyway...

[brightred]

The fact that you're here makes it obvious that they're not really trying to solve these. It's a popularity contest, and you lost.