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

[kokytos]

I. PSA
[ Steven doesn't NEED to make this an announcement, but he will make it an announcement. Because God Forbid, something happens just because he didn't. ]

Hey, so the new places look really nice. This is a public statement and request for none of you f -- [ You can almost hear the skid mark of the swerve. ] -- very responsible and very capable adults to please. For the love of God. Not screw it up, okay? No chainsawing, no throwing food everywhere, no breaking furniture.

Just, let's just try to keep the nice things as nice as we can. Come on.

And also because I feel like if Despair has to keep fixing shit, they're just not going to let us have nicer things after a certain point.


II. Office
[ It's hilarious because of course Steven gravitates towards a place called an office. He's sitting at one of the laptops, fingers typing away rapidly, clearly a person who's learned and well-practiced with these machines, but on his face is a frown. He's got the command prompt open and the screen is just buck wild with commands, but his expression would tell you that whatever he's trying to do is ultimately unsuccessful... whatever it is that he's doing.

He just sits back and sighs, stretching a little bit. ]


III. Bar
[ A man's gotta keep busy, and when given two whole new locations to explore through, well -- it's clear looking through every inch of them is the first thing on his agenda. Come by the bar and find that the spot with the pinball machine is a bit different, since Steven's activated it and is now currently in that odd little basement, frowning at the walls and their indecipherable writing. If you join him, he won't look up but will speak aloud. ]

Do you think the stuff here means anything, or it's just environment?

IV. OTHER
[ HIT ME UP IN DMS OR ON PLURK AT METEOWRONG FOR ANYTHING ELSE, LET'S GOOO. ]

III

[commedia]

[Douman is also here! Though this place is...inexplicable. A Ye Olde can only handle so much, but Douman has just learned to roll with it.]

Hm? Well...I suppose it could be reflecting something...it seems this place in general draws from one's memories.

[kokytos]

Sure... but what does it mean if so? I feel like the writing must something, but then, on the other hand. [ He glances over at the evidence of a heist planning on the table with the cigars. ] Like I don't know if that stuff is relevant, on the other hand.

[commedia]

[They look over at the table.]

That...I think might mean something to someone. [A memory, of someone's.] The whole point about this place is that...it seems like a piecemeal representation of things we know, consciously and unconsciously.

And of course, it is an active way for this place to torment us.

[kokytos]

So we're just meant to distinguish what's memory from what's not, when they're things that aren't even our memories, necessarily.

[ He's a little exhausted. ]

And then, having to figure out if it's someone's, then to figure out whose it is beyond that. Though if I had to take an educated guess, it'd be an Avatar, since it's pointless to muse about it belonging to yet another party we're unfamiliar with.

[ Pondering... ] And if we're meant to solve it, there should be a key. But where is that?

The office also had some books written in similarly indecipherable texts. Can't be just a coincidence.

[commedia]

What if...its being filtered through something? It's indecipherable to us, but it has merely undergone a transformation that we do not comprehend.

It is much like a shadow might look like one thing, but in reality the thing that casts it is another. We're only perceiving shadows, now.

[kokytos]

Sure, but then that would be the "key" we need, wouldn't it? A new perspective in the case of your suggestion.

We'd still need to find it, though...

[ He sighs a little. ] Or are we just meant to wait here until the answers get fed to us? I wouldn't be happy with that.

III

[housewolf]

[Look at him, trying to figure things out. Omi follows him down and looks around the place.]

I feel like it would be weird if it didn't mean anything.

[He can't even begin to read that language, but that's not so surprising.]

[kokytos]

It almost looks comprehensible, but at the same time... not. Like, it's familiar and yet I still can't make any sense of it.

But then, what's the point of putting the writing on the wall if there's no key to decrypt it with?

[housewolf]

Maybe its a foreign language that you've seen in passing?

Unless this place is just doubling down on being ominous.

[kokytos]

I doubt it. I've seen plenty of world languages, and have touched all of the major ones. Between me and my work partner, we speak nine fluently, and have brushed with more. Including a literal alien, Otherworld language called Beyondian. The text doesn't strike me as being comprehensible to any of them, nor can I find a real match based on grammatical structure or anything. [ NERD? ]

If it really is just for atmosphere, it's really a pain in the ass.

[housewolf]

[He just lets him go off about the languages. Ah. Nerd.

... It's nice though. Something kinda grounding about listening to somebody go off about something they know a lot about.] I didn't know you knew that many. Or that you had aliens.

[Moving along.]

You could call this entire situation a pain.

[kokytos]

[ Honestly hate this about him. I'm never being smart again. ]

Well, I spoke English and Spanish to begin with, and then the rest of it came relatively easily. I had to learn the last one more recently. Aliens as in, coming from another world, rather than... space aliens, just to clarify.

[ He shrugs, though. ] The price we paid to get a wish or two. You have any ideas?

I GET TO DO WHAT I WANT

[nodo]

[ swings into here despite my ENTIRE FUCKING INBOX but thanks to a little bit of information that law learned on monday, they're totally doing this. don't exactly know what this is but it is going to happen.

so here is law who has a basic understanding of computers as in he knows what they are in theory and maybe has seen one or two in his day but nothing as simple as the ones that have popped up here. he definitely isn't aware of what the internet is. so, henlo... here is a law peering over his shoulder. ]

Familiar to you?

NARU YOUR TAGS. YOUR SLEEP.

[kokytos]

[ Steven doesn't hesitate to drop his head back a little, bumping it into Law. He doesn't look up, eyes still on the screen, but it's a recognition of his presence. ]

Yeah, I'm pretty good with computers, I use them all the time in my work. There's not enough firepower in a plain laptop like this to do anything complicated, but I just wanted to see if I could trace this internet connection... getting nothing, though.

IT'S FINE.....

[nodo]

[ steven your rest?? but whatever, law will try to not make things too much of a big deal as he momentarily leans over to place a single kiss to steven's head. it's just a quick one as he gets to looking at the laptop closer. ]

Internet? [ hmmm? ] There wasn't anything like that where I came from. We had computers but they were all...

[ he'll pause as he taps on the keyboard and kind of see what kind of thing he could pull up. sorry steven if you were working on anything? law's pretty curious about their newest additions. ]

More localized—if that's the word to use in this kind of situation.

[kokytos]

[ He did absolutely NOTHING last week except be angry and "rest". He's a workaholic, he can't live without trying to do work. Relaxation isn't exactly a thing for him. He does acknowledge the kiss by pushing back ever-slightly on him.

He does make a "tch" noise though when Law reaches around him and closes his windows. There's no bite to it, but still, rude. ]

"Localized" is a word. I tried to see if I could pull up anything about my home for example, since obviously there's usually news going around. I could pull up stuff on New York, but it was all very generic and nothing specific to my world.

...You don't know what internet is?

[nodo]

[ slap his hand away, wow? law is curious how the whole thing works and if steven is looking at anything important maybe he should explain it? either way, law telling steven to actually rest when he didn't take a moment to catch his breath is a fucking comedy in the making. ]

Not a chance in hell. [ and because this joke literally makes itself. ] Or limbo in this case.

It sounds like something that the World Government would hate in my world.

[kokytos]

[ He was literally talking about tracing the internet connection you fool, he was doing things. Or, attempting to do things, at any rate. ]

Well, the internet is censored in a lot of places in my Earth, since it's a global platform of sharing thoughts and opinions. The more conservative, slower countries don't like the idea of newer ideas becoming so accessible to the public through easy mediums. [ ISN'T LIFE AND GOVERNMENT FUN? While Law is just idly plinking away at the computer though, he just reaches up and fixes-slash-plays with the other's collar with an equal air of being laid back. It's PDA, bitch. ]

At the least, there's no more want for entertainment. The internet is basically endless, even if I can't pull up home-specific details. Food got a little better too, if you noticed.

i

[holeful]

Haha, Steven, you make it sound like we're going to destroy everything if we're not told not to!

[WELL.]

[kokytos]

Do I have any proof that some people here aren't going to?

I remember the clothing shop being utterly trashed and torn apart when I first got here.

[holeful]

Maybe it was like that before any of us got here?

[kokytos]

[ He gives Fukuda a look. You know that's not true. ]

[holeful]

What will you even do if someone messes it up?

[kokytos]

Despair refrains from tying up troublemakers because it'd impede their efforts to indulge, but nothing in the book says I can't. Hell, it'd count for a Wrath indulgence myself, probably.