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

[holeful]

[He thinks about it for a long moment.]

I suppose? It's hard, because there are lots of things I've done that have caused both good and bad things to happen.

[commedia]

You said your holes helped people, didn't they?

[holeful]

... It helped me. It helped one of the other people that survived, too, in a different way. Miss Hondomachi I haven't had a chance to talk to, so I don't know.

[commedia]

[looks at the other person that Fukuda "helped". hm]

...Do you think a person of evil can really do good, even if they keep doing terrible things?

[holeful]

[Listen. It's fine.]

A person of evil?

[commedia]

I'm saying in general. If you are a person who does things like kill, perform curses, be a "villain" to stop a golden hero...things like that, is it possible to still do good? Or will your acts...always be evil, no matter what?

[holeful]

Hm... Well, I don't think about things like that. My partner, he's a killer too, but he only kills other killers. So is that good or evil? Most things aren't one or the other, so there's no point in worrying about it.

[commedia]

Your...partner.

[wow fukuda ur boyfriend?]

I...see. I always thought I was doing good things, even when creating curses, because I was getting back at the ones who caused evil for others. Now...I don't know. I guess it was just the first step in allowing myself to become that depraved creature you all knew.

[holeful]

Ah, my work partner.

[Thank god Omi's misunderstanding taught him to clarify this.]

Well, if it's already happened, why agonize over it now?

[commedia]

[Just. Gives him a long stare.]

If there's any way to stop that thing from existing, I want to...do anything in my power to do so. You don't understand. They...I wanted to destroy humanity, at its core. You really think that...something not to agonize over?!

[holeful]

[He nods.]
I don't understand. You're someone from the past but also you aren't? So I don't know what things have already happened and whether you're dead or alive, whether you are that other person of separate people, but it seems complicated so I'd rather just not.

[He has Sloth disease this week so even moreso than usual.]

[commedia]

[They let out a low, exasperated groan.]

See? That's what I said before. You wouldn't want to be friends with me.

[holeful]

What does that have to do with it? Omi and Satoru are friends with me even though they don't understand how I think.

[It does make him a little sad but Douman's already sad so it's fine?]

[commedia]

Can you really call those "friends", though?

[A frown.]

The only so-called friend I had didn't...understand me at all. And it just made things worse.

[holeful]

[He wilts a little at that.]

Well, I've never really had friends before...
[So he wouldn't know!!!]

But they were still willing to look at me and talk with me and comfort me after they found out what I was... so even if we're not friends I'm happy with that.

[commedia]

...

Do you just want to be friends with me for your own selfish needs, Fukuda? Or do you really want to get to know me?

[holeful]

Well, you already look at me like I'm strange and terrible.
[So he doesn't see himself getting much out of it???]

But you seem sad and I want to help. I don't know if you hate being pitied too, but I still feel that way when I look at you.
[He just thinks friends help any situation because he is very lonely all the time.]

[commedia]

[Douman lifts their head and is silent for a moment, before slowly moving to a standing position.]

[They don't look at Fukuda.]

...Show me around this place.

[holeful]

[Well! He's not sure where that leaves them. In any case...]

.... Ah, I guess I can?
[It does sound like a lot of work but... friends???]

Well here's the room where you can watch the living.
[He gestures at the crystal "screens" before heading out of the room.]

[commedia]

[Just offering a look to the screens as they follow.]

...I see. And I guess we can't communicate with them?

[holeful]

No. We can text the avatars and anyone here but not the people who are alive.
[Not that he has.

Anyway they step outside and Fukuda points to some of the still standing buildings in sucession;]

Clothes. Groceries. Beds.
[That's it, tour over.]

[commedia]

[Just. Deadpan at this extremely extensive tour.]

...You're really bad at this.

[holeful]

[HE SIGHS.]

I'm really tired this week.

[commedia]

Is that really an excuse?

[holeful]

You know where everything is now, don't you?