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

Can you come up with a less obnoxious way to do this?

I don't have a bell or anything, otherwise I'd just use that! [he assumes he's just talking about the mug thing.]

Anyway! Death! Who, what, where!

[ You are correct, he was talking about the mug. ]

I'd rather you not with the racket at all.

Anyway, it was him. [ Thumb jab in the direction of Vlad. ] Came by where I was spending the night and used some shitty power on me to immobilize me. Then strangled me until I more or less passed out. Then bashed me in the head, I think.

Listen, this is all in the interest of having it all on a list, so we don't have to keep answering the same stupid questions. It'll work out!

[he writes all that down, then hums.]

Why'd he do it? Or, how, I guess? He's so... old.

I told you, he used some shitty power that basically crippled me with pain on the spot. I assure you if it weren't for that, he wouldn't have had a chance.

A bold assumption for you to make. You have no idea what I'm truly capable of.

Well? What are you capable of?

I have years of military experience and combat training, and I don't like the idea of just lying down and dying. I promise you, you wouldn't have gotten away unscathed.

Oh, that I don't doubt. I'm not delusional. [ He chuckles a little. ] But don't be so quick to assume you'd win on that principle alone.

[ Hmm. ]

Nah.

[ Just nah. ]

Hm. Very well. I suppose it's for the best for both of us that we won't get the chance to find out anyway.

If we're stuck here in never-dying limbo, I'd rather spare the pain in the ass of us trying to one-up each other all the time, anyway. I'd like to have better things to do with our respective times.