GRAVEYARD.

[guestservices]

GRAVEYARD

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today...

...to be super dead. No, did you think you were getting a funeral? Sorry.

When you wake up, no matter how you died, you'll find yourself all in one piece, inside of a fairly large box that upon further inspection may in fact be a coffin. However, throwing the lid off isn't too difficult, and as you step out of your own grave, you'll find yourself standing in a cemetery behind a large mansion, where an iron gate stands between you and the entrance. Thankfully, the moment you approach, dirty and tired as you are, the gate swings open, and you're allowed immediate entrance into the mansion.

The mansion itself is a little dusty, and the furnishings are vintage at best, but... hey, it's home. Why don't you explore a little?

★

FIRST FLOOR.

★ On the first floor is a parlor and sitting area. On one of the tables is a phone, which as of Week 3, Saturday has a dial tone and can be used to contact hotel staff. In addition to that is a kitchen stocked with food - not to mention a large wine cellar full to the bursting with every kind of wine you could imagine. Vintage!

★ Walking down a long hallway, you'll find a laundry room with a washbin and a washboard, a few closets full of dusty old clothes, a large library, and an ornate dining room with a crystal chandelier.

Of note, the dining room in particular has a very tall wall of what look like portraits to one side. If you walk closer, however, you may notice that the portraits are moving - and appear to actually be holding black and white images of your friends (and enemies?) back in the hotel, so you can monitor their activities. That's nice!

★ At the very end of the first floor hallway is another door - this one is locked with a padlock. It has a message painted on the door.... Don't dead? Anyway, it seems you can't check just stroll in there! From the looks of it it would be ill-advised to attempt to break in. Occasionally there are muffled shrieks coming from beyond the door. Hmm!


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★

SECOND FLOOR.

★ On the second floor of the mansion is a series of bedrooms. Just like the hotel, you'll find a room already booked with your name on a nameplate on the door - and a portrait of yourself, as well as your hostage, hanging just above the nameplate. The inside of the rooms are simple - a bed with red covers, a desk with a typewriter, and a small bathroom with a toilet and a clawfoot tub. Provided that you didn't give your belongings away, you'll find all of them on your bed, waiting for you upon your arrival.

★ A dumbwaiter sits at the end of the hallway of bedrooms. Inside of it is a typewriter, and a golden bell labeled as Virgo's. A small sign above the dumbwaiter says: PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT STAFF BY LEAVING A MESSAGE. VIRGO MAY ALSO BE SENT A TIP AND RUNG. PULL THE LEVER TO PRESS SEND. - STAFF

It seems you can reach out to the hotel staff by leaving a message or ringing the bell, though your options are limited for the latter. Sure enough, a lever in the wall next to the dumbwaiter is currently set to the "down" position. Push it to "up" and watch your message disappear.

★ Beside the dumbwaiter is one last bedroom. This room is marked with a plaque that says "Dream Suite", and has several familiar constellations decorating the door. Occasionally, when you ring the bell by the dumbwaiter while thinking of a member of Hotel Staff on the living side, the corresponding constellation on the door will light up, and you'll feel as though you should walk in. Inside, there is a line of comfortable beds. Lie down in one, and you'll have a dreamlike "in person" audience with the NPC you had attempted to contact.

★

OUTDOORS.

★ Outside of the mansion is a small garage. The ground here is worn down and thin, and you can almost make out what look like railroad tracks embedded in the dirt. Inside of the garage is a rattly old car that moves along those little railroad tracks, from the garage to the mansion front, and then back all the way around to the cemetery.

★ The cemetery where you first awaken is a direct copy of the cemetery outside of the hotel - right down to the placement of statues, mausoleums, and the creepy atmosphere. Your grave remains after you wake up in it, in case you want to take a dirt nap.

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N̸A̵V̴I̶G̶A̶T̴I̴O̸N̷.̷

█ LOCATIONS █ STATUSES █ PROFILES █ AUDIENCES
█ REPORTING █ PRIVATE CONVOS █ MURDER

Comments

[ercnerd]

[Help. Sieghart, who knows so little, gives an emphatic nod. He takes his promises seriously (sometimes), and here there's only going forward.]

If this mansion is anything like the daycare was, we'll be off to a slow start. [He thinks as he chews on another bite of onigiri.] You mentioned a strange room earlier. Do you have a key for it?

[illomened]

[Sometimes.........

But yeah here they go on their endless forward march! This is fine.]

I think the Other Side might have been similar, too, but my death didn't allow for me to see it... [binch my habit of dying at the literal last second before endgame] --But no, I don't. I was thinking of trying to pry the lock from it in some other way.

[ercnerd]

[Prying a lock for answers in a forsaken place like this doesn't strike Sieghart as illicit; however, he can't help feeling wary. Why the screams?]

Have you talked to Virgo about it?

[illomened]

[A bit sheepishly:]

I haven't. I only noticed it after Virgo-san left that first time, and after that point, I was a little distracted...

[By watching people j'acuse each other on live silent TV and then fail to die about it.]

[ercnerd]

[That's fair.

It's actually fairer when he considers Virgo's behavior on paper. Will asking even help?]

We don't know what's on the other side. Let's collect some more information before we make any moves.

[illomened]

[Just nodding! This is why Souji needs guidance and also why he knows he's a follower and not a leader, if left to his own devices he just Sakyous it.]

I'll do my best to figure out more about it too, Si-san! Anything with a lock on it is probably important in one way or another, at least, even if it's... ah, too early to stick our noses in places they don't belong, maybe.

[ercnerd]

You're right; it's too early. But we're already dead.

[Short of obliterating their souls, it cannot get that much worse for them in Sieghart's resilient mind. He continues eating.]

And I was able to share more than I expected after the trial. It won't hurt to try making waves.

[It will hurt. They just have to get over it.]

[illomened]

[Fortunately Souji will always throw himself recklessly into any situation with absolutely no regard for himself or his comfort. Even if his apparently immortal soul was at risk he'd GO FOR IT.]

Oh, that's good! In the place I was at before, communication was restricted in just about every way. Even when the dead returned from the Other Side for a bit, they couldn't speak freely. Maybe that's a good sign here, then?

[Time to make waves. TIME TO BREAK INTO THE LOCKED ROOMS AND GO TO SUPERHELL.]

[ercnerd]

[As Sieghart eats, he wonders.]

Whether it's a bad or good sign, what matters is what everyone makes of the information being passed around.

[Sometimes the truth has a way of being divisive. He hopes that won't be the case here.]

Is anyone else here from the same place as you?

[illomened]

Mm, that's true...

[He doesn't want to jinx them, though. Nor does he want to spend time thinking about COMPLICATED THINGS, so he'll just move right along, shaking his head and finally reaching for some food, himself.]

No, that doesn't seem to be the case. Ah - from my first one, anyway. I was asleep for the duration of the summer camp, but I do recall seeing a few of the people here at the end of that.

[ercnerd]

[Is it a blessing in disguise? Being here and not seeing friends from a previous tragedy inside the portraits. It's the opposite for Sieghart, who recognized and was recognized by more than a handful of guests. Who can say?]

What was the first one like?

[illomened]

[There's a little beat of silence as he considers, even though it feels like the events of that first excursion happened mere days earlier.]

Well... It took place in a castle, and we were drafted to help settle a war between a noble Dragon and a powerful Tiger. It was a battle of factions and ink and story-crafting, ultimately hinging on an equal number of people being left alive in each group. Nine survivors.

[ercnerd]

[Nine survivors. Talk about an awful system.]

Stories again? Why does it always come down to the ink?

[illomened]

[It's fine they all came back!]

Oh, dear... I'm guessing or at least hoping that yours didn't involve ending any wars, at least?

[ercnerd]

No. Mine was just a story that wanted an ending. I don't think it even minded getting skewered for it in the aftermath.

[illomened]

[Oh... That sounds kind of sad to him, actually?? Anything created with a specific purpose in mind would surely be distressed in the event that it couldn't carry out or fulfill that purpose...

Souji will just keep these thoughts to himself though, taking a bite of his grilled onigiri instead, first.]

--Mm, well, I suppose it must have been "completed" by the time it was... skewered?

[ercnerd]

More or less.

I didn't stick around to see it getting passed around between our more vengeful students, though.

[He says that without judgment. People are entitled to their vengeful feelings and desires.]

[illomened]

[Sakyou in the distance just nodding solemnly.]

If it was finished, then I'm sure it could die with no regrets, at least. [He will also not begrudge anyone feelings of resentment and vengeance against something that presumably kidnapped them and started the apparent 500th killing game to exist in the multiverse.]

It really is a terrible shame that finishing up one of these things doesn't seem to be the end of it for some of us, though.

[ercnerd]

[Dying without regrets after finishing one's purpose—he can't say that he won't feel the same way once it's his time.]

It's troublesome, but being here means we can stop this one from happening again.

[He'd rather that he be here than some of the others back home, anyway.]

[illomened]

[Same hat! Same hat...

But yeah honestly same, he'd always rather it be him than the people he cares for getting involved in nonsense. Sieghart's very shonen stance on all of this just further buoys his mood, too.]

Mm! I wonder what way we'll be able to go about it this time.

[He is better at fighting than negotiating or burying things in gifts and offerings but also, that is only against like, non-godlike entities.]

[ercnerd]

[It's different, being among the first of the dead as opposed to a later batch. There are too many unknowns in spite of his admittedly limited knowledge of the shadow. It's going to be a chore, but he made several promises . . . and Souji is here.]

The others have their own way. We'll have to figure ours out over time.

[illomened]

We do have that if nothing else, at least.

[For now... But hey! Being dead really does give one a surplus of time to consider things with. He's sure they'll be able to get to work and make the most of what they've got here, sooner or later. And for him, that's good enough.]