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.

✨ FULL NAVIGATION ✨
🌙 Locations 🌙 IC Profiles 🌙 Statuses 🌙 Private Conversations 🌙
🌙 Audience Requests 🌙 Murder Proposals 🌙 Indulgence Reports 🌙

Comments

[nodo]

[ and when steven pulls back, law let's go without any kind of protest. he's not particularly an overtly affectionate person and only made these small concessions for steven and no one else. well, calling them "concessions" feels a bit wrong now, but putting the proper name for them is...something to be decided later.

some time later. for now, he'll let steven keep his hand if he wants it and look out to the scenery before them and just see what "hell" has in store them. if there's anything to wax poetic about here, he keeps it to himself and just lets things move accordingly. later....they definitely had some time later. ]

That might be helpful to get an idea of what to expect around here.

[ just because he has to make the joke/reference... ]

Should I be ready for fire and ice?

[kokytos]

[ Initially Steven doesn't let go of the grasp he still has on the other's upper arms, but slowly, his hands slide down and his grip fades, until he drops his own arms and he's not touching Law anymore. He's reluctant to, as if letting go will make Law disappear (he's always had the core-embedded fear of the very few handful of people he loves, dying, disappearing on him one day, but to have it brought out in the forefront like that --), but he's a damn adult. His shoulders relax a bit regardless, mayhaps forcefully, when nothing changes.

He only gives a slight laugh, a muted noise through the receding wave of despair that threatened him momentarily. ]

I'm afraid it's not that interesting. Come on.

[ He'll show you around to the places they have access to. Clothing store and grocery store first! All the explanations included about how everything sucks (clothes being effectively thrift and threadbare or not very well-fitting, you can tell Steven dug out his new outfit from here; the food tasting more like talcum powder than any semblance of real food, the "taste" of things just a bare shadow underneath the chalkiness), but seems like it could get better over time slash indulgences.

Yeah, they're not enirely free of indulgences. Even if it is technically optional here this time. ]

[nodo]

[ if law notices the way that steven forces himself to relax and the way he lets go of him, he doesn't make any kind of acknowledgement of it. he doesn't know what kind of things steven has gone through since coming here but he isn't about to push or rush anything. he will, though, keep himself close to steven for his own comfort. sure dying was not part of his goal or plan, but he'd be lying that seeing steven again wasn't, on some level, worth it. ...not like he knew.

whatever, he just quietly notes everything and makes casual commentary here and there about what he sees. surprised about the clothing store (and suddenly glad that he is fine with his current outfit), unimpressed about their food situation (did they even have to eat? or was it a habitual thing...), and finally the knowledge that indulgences were optional...

hmm. why did that have to play into the kind of things he would prefer to have with steven than not? finally getting to enjoy whatever it was they wanted to without it being a necessity? (though the more they indulged things would improve...??) ]

Well, there's more here than I would have thought there be. [ he didn't know what he expected but he didn't expect actual locations. ] Do we just stay out here in the middle of it all when or if we decide to sleep?

[ does not ask about perceive other reasons for this. ]

[kokytos]

[ Life's funny like that, isn't it? But at least, they'd still get benefits out of indulgences or whatever. Objective, material benefits for their odd little afterlife, that is.

They had one night and then got CUCKED. Steven learned his "lesson". ]

Fortunately not. There's a proper residential building. If you're feeling like making the beds a little bit more comfortable, I recommend "borrowing" some clothes while we're here for bedding. It's not the world's worst, but it could use some work.

[nodo]

Charming.

[ "lesson"????

but he gets the feeling and judging from how the rest of this place seems to be shaping up, whatever awaits him at this residential building is far from anything "nice". there is something he has, though he doubts it'll matter, it didn't matter when they were alive. ]

How bad are we talking about and are there name plates outside of each room?

[ which would be a little unsettling but it's fine. ]

[kokytos]

[ HIS LESSON!!! Which is that shit could happen any time, so why wait? Who cares about outward appearances anymore. They're dead, they can't die more, as Steven stated to Law. Steven's sanity is probably going to be okay, because it turns out Douman is baby now and there really isn't anyone Steven's on bad terms with. The only thing he's got to lose here is Law. ]

It's just like sleeping on a really stiff mattress. Better than the first day or two, honestly felt like I may as well have just slept on the floor for the same effect.

There's no assigned rooming, so I just took one. Doesn't look like we're in any arrangement regarding that. Why not take a look for yourself?

[nodo]

[ so proud of steven to finally learn that lesson even if it's funny that it was law who was the one who planted the seed in his head in the first place. but sometimes you play into everything that people say about you because, hey, they already expect it.

though that's neither here or there because law will make a face at their accommodations. ]

Can't expect comforts in the in-between, can we? I think that'd be too much for us to ask for.

[ again, do people like them deserve creature comforts like soft beds and luxurious accommodations? especially given the current population. no one here is free of sin; it's more of a matter of what kind of sin. ]

Sure, show me where I'll be spending my nights or whatever times in-between.

[kokytos]

[ Hearing it and living it are way different experiences -- as they've both realized. And also, restraining from having something and letting it go and having it literally ripped from you in the form of brutal deaths are two different things, please. ]

Not for now, no. There isn't much in that regard yet.

[ Come on then, it'd just be easier to show you anyway. ]