GRAVEYARD

[cluedin]

THE GRAVEYARD

No two deaths are ever quite the same. Some might remember the exact moment their lives were cut short; others might only see a blinding flash of light; the particularly unlucky ones might not recall any details whatsoever.

No matter how it ended up happening, though, all of you here will always have one thing in common: one second you're dead; the next, you wake up to find yourself in a dark room. Before you can even start to try and get your bearings, a shadowy figure appears in the doorway of your room, face lit from the bottom up by a faint, almost ethereal glow. It stands still for a few seconds before murmuring,

"Oooooh... I see dead people."

... The voice is followed by a snicker as a gloved hand flicks the light switch on, revealing the mysterious entity to be Pumpkin, the fox-eared groundskeeper. Lowering the game console that had illuminated her face, she continues, "That one never gets old. Anyway, hey, sup, you're dead, that sucks, the house is probably gonna eat you as soon as this round is over. Wanna see what everyone else is up to on the other side?"

As you take in everything the gardener has told you, you suddenly realize as you look around... though you don't see anything, why does it feel like this place is already crowded?

---

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Comments

[allfornone]

[He just covers his face with his hands again for a moment. Anya sure is a lot, even though she's not trying to be!! But it's fine, he pretty much just needs a second.]

Normal is... [normal is so far away even when he knows what it looks like; genuine normal isn't something he should strive for, normal isn't something that will help him, he thinks] It's not-- none of this is normal, so I don't know.

[Maybe that's the true extent of how he feels beyond everything else: he has no idea how to feel, especially here. He's starting to be tired of being off-balance, even if it is a different sort. A breath.]

This part isn't new. I haven't been dead before, but this sort of place, like purgatory -- the house doesn't allow souls to rest. Pumpkin-san said something about it.

[constellates]

Purgatory.... [she repeats the word, gently rolling the r, but she supposes - that's not the same thing as the afterlife? or is it? she'd heard that those who talked to the ghosts knew that asch was here, so....] .... okay.

Верный. You are right.

Nothing here is normal. It is not easy to be here.

[she's still wrestling with a lot - but she's the type to shove down her emotions for others, so]

Can I do anything - to help make easy for you?

[allfornone]

[It's funny and terrible because Subete shoves down emotions normally probably for the opposite reason and now that he's dead it's just sort of a free-for-all. Sometimes. Sometimes Anya happens and he actually just gets tripped up because how does one deal with this volume of non-religious alarming niceness in this particular context.]

[...]

[Honestly he really is pathetic, probably, for momentarily considering that offer. He is the older one here, which means very little in the grand scheme of things but in the moment seems oddly important. Being the one being placated is...]

... Yeah. None of us should be here.

[That's the long and short of it; he's not sure where they would be if they weren't here. But.]

I think it's just something that's going to take time, at least. I don't know how much time we have, but -- what do you want to do, Anya-san?

[constellates]

[oh.... the question manages to get her to look thoughtful for a moment. presumably she's had her cry by now - and she's tried to clean her face up, but there might be a little bit of redness in her eyes. she hums thoughtfully at the question]

.... Звезды. Look at the stars. [that always calms her down] Cook something, so that people here are not hungry. [do the dead even get hungry, the answer is no but]

Find a gun, maybe shoot a little.

[that's the frustration talking]

... Mostly want to help others. In ways I can. So... if there is anything, please ask me.

[she'll be shameless about it, she sort of just wants to be useful after feeling for a while that she very much was not]

[allfornone]

Ha... Like Ayabe-san, you're good at taking care of people.

[Funnily enough, though, Ayabe was a lot easier to deal with -- possibly just because he's a little more discreet or straightfaced about it?? But having a point of reference is helpful, even if they're sort of still careening along on... whatever they're doing at this point. Airing their ghosts.

No pun intended.]

You know -- I was surprised to hear you could shoot. Maybe because you're from overseas, the armory here isn't usual in Japan in and of itself. [is he still trying to change the subject, maybe, maybe not] But I think there will be things that need doing. At least... it doesn't look like many of us intend to sit idle.

[The jury is out on that front, here, but maybe he'll figure things out eventually. At the very least he's not growing mushrooms out of moodiness right now. Distraction successful??]

[constellates]

Am I good at it...? [it's - a quiet question, one that's more to herself than to him, though at the mention of shooting she actually manages a small laugh] Ah... Papa taught Anya how to shoot for hunting. Цель. I have good aim too.

[and she smiles, like she would be more proud of that fact if not for the way that it failed her, and she's still dead,

but regardless - ]

... I do not plan to sit still. But... Эмоциональный. I know that people need to recover too, and cannot move fast if they are upset.

[she's just SLAMMED that repression button out of a very strong sense of guilt for failing, she'll just have a cry when no one is looking]