lesmodsalouette: (Default)
ℬ𝑒𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓁𝓊𝓇𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒 ℳ𝑜𝒹𝓈 ([personal profile] lesmodsalouette) wrote2025-03-16 03:54 am

Graveyard

Graveyard

The garden is still sprawling and green – despite having entirely lost all its riotous flowers and colors, along with any sign of wildlife or birdsong – though one thing stands out more than anything else: from Monday to Thursday, you can’t see the castle anymore. All that remains where it once stood (or perhaps, usually stands) is an incongruously large tree that towers over everything else and somehow looks larger and more imposing than the castle ever did. The tree’s branches are bare, without any hint of life nor leaf – however, on the weekends (that is to say, Friday through Sunday) a faint projection of the castle appears around it, cradling the only things that the denizens of this alternate garden can see in detail from the other side: the flurry of activity around the investigation, the circus-like dimension that holds the trial, and the mirrors and the grassy dimension that display the execution.

For those curious what the land of the living are up to, a mirage-like and upside-down reflection of the castle garden in its original arrangement can be spotted occasionally overlaying the sky. This strange illusion may sometimes show those in the garden on the other side, flitting in and out of view like stray clouds; but much like the weather, their appearance is mercurial – they cannot be reached and cannot be heard.

Water, Flower, Everywhere
The fountains remain active somehow, though their features seem to have eroded, obscuring the identities of the deities and the wings of the birds, cracking pottery down into nothing but worn shards and handles. At night, only maybe half the lights work (and here they are real candlelight, rather than magical), plunging most of the garden into crepuscular darkness. The trellis walkway looks quite overgrown (mysteriously, bamboo is taking over), entirely covering some statues and other features along its length, and it’s no longer walkable – a miniature canal runs the whole length underneath the arches, feeding into other new waterways around the garden that cut off footpaths seemingly at random. There are small footbridges here and there, but the lack of logic to the whole arrangement makes falling into one of the streams or canals a real hazard.

The waterways do all manage to converge at the pond by the pavilion – neither of which are all that soothing or classical anymore. The pond is only half-full, and entirely lacks water lilies or any dragonflies; its banks sit jagged above the dark waters, and perhaps that’s why the pavilion, too, is half collapsed down into it all. Gone are the curtains and ivies; only dead curling vines and half-collapsed columns are left, but there’s still someplace to sit if you put your mind to it.

Most of the flowerbeds sit fallow or overtaken by weeds – there’s signs here and there that someone might have tried to clear them out, but the bulk of the effort seems to have gone to the orchard by the gardener’s cottage. It might be more accurate to say cottages, given that there are a few of them dotted around that area for some reason. None of them are locked, but all of them have only minimal furnishings apart from the original; they’re also all provided with the full complement of gardener’s tools. Next to them, there are new saplings and half-grown flowering trees: some pear and apple, but also some not. There are new shoots in the kitchen orchard that have just barely taken root, the dirt recently turned.


Hedge Maze(?)
The other most eye-catching feature is what once was an ornamental hedge maze: instead of being a tame height here, it has seemingly grown wild and completely unchecked, towering above the rest of the garden almost like its own overgrown mountain. The hedge walls go up and up and up, making it entirely impossible to see the center or even how far it goes despite the fact that sections of the hedges have also died, reduced to the branches underneath, bristling with interlocked thorns.

Part of it had even spilled over into the garden itself, huge gnarled branches spreading out like burnt-blackened fingers all the way to the edge of the pond – wherever the branches touch, even the greenery is withered, and any statues look more ruined than those in the rest of the area. As of the end of Week 3, however, the branches have retracted entirely and the way into the hedge maze has opened even more. However, there is now a storm brewing over what might be the center or the general area of it. Getting close to the hedge maze or any of the hedge(?) branches is... unpleasant, though it doesn’t usually go beyond a buzz of wrongness and a slight headache.


siffriend: (019)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
[ I owe you my life. ]

No, Hwy.
vivens: (pic#15641061)

[personal profile] vivens 2025-03-31 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
I see.

[ sabo will follow their movements as they explain the basics to him. it's... well okay. who is he to think of this being weird given literally everything that he has been learning over the course of the month. ]

That's... [ what is the "right" thing to say here. hmm. ] That must be very frustrating. Being able to see us but not being able to communicate with us.

[ well, not exactly "us" anymore. ]
vivens: (pic#16477298)

[personal profile] vivens 2025-03-31 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ everyone is so glad for that and he only knows one piece of it. hah. ]

I see.

So, then it seems like the theory of the dead existing elsewhere had some truth.

[ or something like that...? ]
frostlight: (05)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-03-31 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
[Her eyes narrow.]

And I keep saying, I don't know.
thesharpestroy: (38)

[personal profile] thesharpestroy 2025-03-31 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
[The awkwardness comforts Shiv a bit more than a genuinely emotionally skilled bit of comfort would. She's the same, after all. Her brothers have cried in front of her a few times and all she really knew how to do was pat them on the back and stand there.

She gives a light, sad chuckle at the offer.]


Magic can be taught? Damn, where do I sign up?
frostlight: (03)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-03-31 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
That was always true, even beyond this dimension. Did you think you'd just disappear after asking someone else to take your life?
siffriend: (069)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
We tried.

[ ... ]

I don't think it worked. Or if it did, um... Maybe we weren't clear enough about it. Yaman says that we're connected to something back in the castle, or we can reach out to it anyway, and last week we tried to send some words. We don't know who might've found them, though.

[ Alas. ]

You'll, um, meet him soon. Yaman comes to greet everyone. He's a nice guy, and a spirit like us. There's a couple others you can only see in reflections though.

[ (You

are

being

so

helpful!!!!!!!!!) ]
siffriend: (060)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ ??? ]

How do you not know Hwy?
Edited 2025-03-31 00:19 (UTC)
vivens: (pic#15698452)

[personal profile] vivens 2025-03-31 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
[ this is where sabo would say something very unkind about chara but he doesn't and instead will focus on the other things that she brings up. ]

Blade, but I'm glad that he didn't get caught. He did it because I asked him to.

[ so it would have been real awkward if he had been voted to be executed for a crime he only committed at sabo's request. that said he'll make a face at shiv's next lines. ]

He didn't try to loop me into anything. [ ... ] If anything, I was the one who twisted his arm and made him take this gamble.
frostlight: (05)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-03-31 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
[She opens her mouth to rebuke him, cool frustration scraping at the thin surface of her patience, when she freezes.]

Are you talking about Hwylryn?
siffriend: (046)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 12:25 am (UTC)(link)
Right here.

[ (You can do this much.

You don't know if it'll help in the long run. But you want to see her smile.)

Siffrin looks up at the large, barren tree. ]


... People in my world visit the largest tree in the area, called Favor Trees, to make a wish. From there, you take a leaf that feels right, to represent yourself. You breathe that wish into the leaf, and repeat it... three, six, seven times -- as many times as it feels right to do so -- and then fold it up with your wish inside. That tethers you together. Then you let it go, and the Universe finds the means to grant your wish.

[ Like it's easy. ]
siffriend: (061)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 12:25 am (UTC)(link)
Yes.

[ (Stars, how hard was that???) ]
vivens: (pic#16537647)

[personal profile] vivens 2025-03-31 12:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ sorry siffrin, sabo is totally listening to what they're telling him but there's something that they say that sabo latches onto almost instantly. the other stuff he'll revisit in his mind palace or whatever when he gets this out. ]

Yaman...? [ it couldn't be, could it..? ] Such as Yamanbagiri Kunihiro?

[ what could be the odds. ]

Perhaps—are they a spirit that embodies a sword?

[ there's no way, right? but if it was, then what did that all mean. could they do something with this information..?? ]
frostlight: (04)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-03-31 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
[Don't start.

She sighs.
]

You should've just said so.
siffriend: (049)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
Um.

[ Was... that his full name?????

(You remember being told it, but it was awfully long.)

...

A nod!!! ]


Yeah. He isn't one anymore, but he was a talking sword for a while. Friend of yours, or something?
siffriend: (025)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
I did.
frostlight: (03)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-03-31 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
I only know him by how he introduced himself.
vivens: (pic#15698825)

[personal profile] vivens 2025-03-31 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
[ WELL TRULY WHAT ARE THE ODDS.


also again, what the fuck is he supposed to do with this information??? why does this keep happening to me—naru??? closes my eyes and refuses to see anything.
]

I'd hardly call him a friend since I didn't speak to him, but he did speak to someone who helped me a great deal here.

[ he seems amused. ]

How interesting that we are on this side along with him.
vivens: (pic#15698637)

[personal profile] vivens 2025-03-31 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
I've never thought too much about where the body goes, but I did have hopes that the spirit would be around to witness the actions of the living.

[ ... ]

Just...very differently than how we are here.
frostlight: (01)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-03-31 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
[He's probably thinking more along the line of the older ghosts here. She doesn't mention them just yet.]

We can't see everything, but it's enough.
siffriend: (069)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
[ Oh...

... ]


He... did say, that he has his own connection to that side, which is how he knows what The Witch is up to. But I just thought that maybe it was something that was always around, like the clocks.

[ Since there are so many. Siffrin's going to pour themselves a glass of wine too. It has the tang they don't like, but-- there's no champagne or anything sweeter as far as alcohol goes, and stars do they need it! ]

Um. You should visit the maze sometime, too. It's pretty off putting when you get close to parts of it, but... there's pieces of a past. His, I think. I'm pretty sure. Memories have a lot of weight here. Stories too.

[ ("I believe that you, of anyone, will be able to accomplish much and more."

...

You wonder if that's true. He put so much faith in you, in what he thinks you can do, and you... haven't done anything that matters, yet. But maybe you can now. You want to reach him.) ]
siffriend: (047)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
[ (You only use a nickname you've heard from others when he isn't around, so you forgot that he introduces himself fully.

...

Oh well.) ]


He was really torn up by your death. Since you were a dragon like him and his brother.
vivens: (pic#15698873)

[personal profile] vivens 2025-03-31 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
[ he'll come around to the truth soon enough, don't worry. ]

Is there a way to communicate with them? I'm sure you've tried.
vivens: (pic#15641159)

[personal profile] vivens 2025-03-31 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
Well, I'm here to happily confirm that the person who he has connections with is someone who most definitely want the best for everyone here. He's the person I entrusted my wish to—even if he's a bit difficult for others to deal with.

[ he laughs to that. clearly, whatever discomfort that sabo had from his arrival has more or less melted away, or taken the backseat, as he focus on the here and now. thanks siffrin for giving him things to do with himself. ]

Yaman's memories, you mean?

[ memories sure do have a huge meaning in this place, doesn't it? sabo's going to chew on that a considerable amount, thank you. ]

I don't mind things that are off-putting. [ is it really too soon if he's the one making the joke? either way— ] I did put myself through something that most would never think to do, after all, but if this will help everyone out then what's a bit more discomfort.
frostlight: (02)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-03-31 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
We tried to connect with objects on the other side. That's how we were able to follow the meeting.