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

[nodo]

"What would you do to for your wish?"

[ a question asked multiple times and law just repeats it while shaking his head. ]

There could be something else motivating people to kill other than reducing numbers or trying to speed up the indulgences they're contributing. I know Pride and Wrath have told me there's no "conspiracy" going on but clearly there is something.

[kokytos]

Honestly, I feel like I'm underachieving. I should've made my wish something way more important if people were going to start murdering left and right this fast for it. [ FOR REAL THOUGH. Steven had just signed up as one of his many options to keep delving for answers and solutions to Hellsalem's Lot's many problems. It wasn't that extreme of a do or die situation for him. Of course, it all had the subtext of his main wish, "uphold Klaus's ideal", but everything he did already had that. ]

Well. Some people certainly killed only for the sake of doing so. See individuals like HK-47, or my own death. In other words, sometimes there's just wildcards that don't quite fit into the mold but skew the data.

...What do you suspect is that "something"?

[nodo]

You could always change what you want to wish for. [ law says very casually. ] Or at least change parts of it. There's nothing to stop us from doing that.

[ no rules and all of that, right? ]

But I don't know. We're all trying to figure out what that "something" is. We've only gotten hints of what it could be and what could be happening around here. [ he'll give his head a shake. ] I've experienced memories, people have seen things, people have gone to places not found here...

[ AND NOW THEY KNOW THAT THEY'RE FOOD. ]

[kokytos]

Hm... maybe. [ He just smiles at him in a semi-cryptic way. He doesn't follow up on that. But it disappears fairly fast after when he nods slowly at the rest of what Law says. ]

Right. The little adventures people have gone to and come back injured from, and all that. [ Hmm... ] ...If only I'd been around to experience one of those for myself, then I'd have more insight.

[nodo]

[ squints??? or well. he would squint if he wasn't distracted by giving Steven a bit more to work with about the cyoas. though, it's not like law was able to go on one before committing crimes and dying. ]

They don't get any better from the looks of it and seem to be related to the memories or experiences of anyone in the station avatars and us alike.

[ he'll give a sigh and a shake of his head. ]

The last one I saw ended with someone with a club through their chest—they managed to live but I never thought I'd have to get involved with something like that here. Douman was taken to the latest one if you want to ask them questions about it.

[kokytos]

...I saw it. Not the adventure itself, but when everyone exited. [ He gestures to the screens, from which they can watch the living. ]

It looked rough.

[nodo]

[ oh. that's convenient, but he'll just give steven a small nod. ]

It'd be interesting to see if there isn't another group that ends up popping out on Thursday. It's interesting that this place has so many routines built into it.

[kokytos]

Only left to us to make some sense out of all of it...