probe | GRAVEYARD ✨

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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Better confidence than total delusion -- there's no way that I would go into any kind of Heaven, I'm well-aware of that.

[ Hmm. ]

A kind of limbo, then? I don't imagine that after the entirety of my life, my genuine afterlife would be populated by you... or really, a good chunk of the other people here with me.

You may consider it to be such, yes. That is more accurate than attempting to describe it as any place in particular.

[limbo is Close Enough.]

Your work is not quite done.

[ Hm. Well, there's the answer to his underlying question. And a good segue to the next. ]

Our "work"... is it for you? For them? [ The yet living. ] ...All of us?

You may have been killed, but you may yet indulge-- and possibly improve your situation somewhat, in doing so.

[ A hum of acknowledgement. It's really just a noise to fill the space of brief silence as he mulls over that. ]

So not even dying is releasing me from dipping into Despair, huh. [ It's maybe gallows humour. ] All the same rules apply, as when we were living?

To some extent, depending upon the rules you mean.

[please continue to not DESTROY EVERYTHING.]

[ He won't!! He hasn't this entire time, heck he's actually played clean-up crew instead twice in his short alive time. Have some faith in him Despair... ]

You know, you always come hang out but you just seem like you'd just rather not be here, ever.

I get that you're Despair and all, but it's not like Wrath actually revels in wrath, either.

At least some of you are aware that they do not.

[thanks for not making assumptions about wrath.

but he just waves a clawed hand, idly.]

Had I my own way, I would not spend too much time among you, no-- but as this duty falls to me, I do intend to see it through. Without an eye or two on you, there would doubtless have been more damage than the others have already caused.

You ever thought about trying to make your responsibilities a little more bearable for yourself, if you're going to have to do them anyway?

[ Hypocrite Steven is, he's really just parroting back a variant of stuff he's been told. What's enjoying stuff? ]

I can't say anything for the people who frequently cause chaos, but you lot have special powers, don't you? You don't have stuff that just keeps them immobile forever?

I certainly could, yes, but it would be considered interfering in their capacity to indulge. Were it not for that, I would have taken stronger measures from the beginning.

[it genuinely is something of an annoyance that he can't just get rid of the worst of them, but it is what it is.]

Shame. I guess I understand the feeling... babysitting.

[ Emotionally closes eyes. ]

Can't you just chalk it up to Sloth and call it a day. [ His sardonicism. ]

I have, here and there. I cannot do so for nearly as long as I have before, but I do find sleeping to be a far more enjoyable way to pass my time.

[is that what he does when he's not here. it is a mystery.]

[ I hope so. Emet-Selchs deserves a long, long nap all the time. ]

Hm. Well, if you're going to have to waste your time looking after us anyway, maybe a chat over tea sometime. Very chalky-tasting, but just for atmosphere. [ He's already so tired of the rest of the dead people here help. ]

If that's even remotely in your interests, anyway. If you're more about just standing broodingly...

[that gets a slight smirk.]

You are somewhat more tolerable. I suppose I might make the time, in my busy schedule of brooding and ignoring the majority of the ridiculousness they get into.

I'll take that as a victory. I don't usually get to be called tolerable. [ That's just self-depreciating humour. ]

Sometimes, you just have to give up trying to corral idiots and take some time off doing more interesting things.

Take it, then, but do not anticipate more.

[he's not just full of compliments to give out to people.]

So long as they are not actively causing trouble, it shouldn't hurt to step away.

[ Yes yes you and your ways. ]

We're both stuck here, so I just think it's in both of our best interests to make it less of a pain in the ass.

[ He smiles, a little! ]

I'll be looking forward to it at any rate. Take care, even the people who run the place need breaks.

GRAVEYARD ✨

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