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.


spotsalone: (hickey8)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-03-31 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
[ Hickey wakes with a violent gasp, and at first, he's sure he's back in the arctic. The chill, the snow... He scrambles to his feet, disoriented, grasping for the knife no longer in his belt, ready to fight whatever's coming next.

But after a moment, he realizes what's most important here: He's alive. He may not understand how or have the faintest idea where he's landed, but he's alive.

He chuckles, a low snicker at first that blooms into a full laugh, tilting his head back to take in the sky. His brand of luck is truly deranged, but it's luck nonetheless. ]


What a miracle.

[ He sounds far too proud of himself. Who wants to hit him with a rock? ]
siffriend: (041)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
[ Siffrin hadn't seen the final vote. Had been surprised to see Hickey, and then to see Yoonhee as his executioner -- but none of that matters, because they remember the conversation at the start, and Siffrin

is absolutely not throwing a rock, but there's an almost arctic chill in the way that one eye stares at him when they come upon him.

No wine for Hickey. Just quiet, to see what he'll say or do. ]
spotsalone: (126)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-03-31 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Siffrin.

[ Hey pal! It's obvious he is not pleased, but as if that stops Hickey from greeting his old roommate with a smile. It's a little too gleeful, perhaps, but look he's just woken up from what he thought was his end. It's a great day! ]

You're unhappy with me, I see.
siffriend: (014)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
We aren't friends.

[ Blunt, but with-- a bit of questioning, in that hurt way. ]
spotsalone: (009)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-03-31 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
And why is that?

[ A genuine question. ]

Because you've taken my actions personally, or because you don't want to be?
siffriend: (040)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
You used me as an excuse to get your wish.

[ Isn't that what it comes down to? Siffrin's death was a perfectly timed opportunity -- Andrew had angered others, and one of them could be easily framed. ]

You killed Andrew. You could've gotten Yoru killed too. [ Jin as well. ] Why would I think we're friends?
spotsalone: (115)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-03-31 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I did, yes.

[ Said matter-of-factly. No point in hiding the truth. ]

I did what I needed to do in order to ensure my survival. Returning to where I came from empty-handed was not an option. You must understand that much, even if you disagree with my methods.
siffriend: (054)

[personal profile] siffriend 2025-03-31 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Of anyone, Siffrin might.

It isn't as if they have any leads. Just nightmares and anger that hasn't faded despite the continued time between their last reset here and now.

(You're still so, so mad at Loop.)

But-- using a friend like that, it's-- ]


... Are you gonna cooperate here?

[ Is all they ask, the edge of their tone not so rough. Still hurt, that they were used. Still hurt, that it caused Andrew to die. But they-- do understand, given Hickey's situation, what he's been through as far as he's spoken. ]

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thesharpestroy: (30)

[personal profile] thesharpestroy 2025-03-31 07:16 am (UTC)(link)
[Okay, yes, her first priority was Andy, but hearing this freak fucking laugh upon ending up here boils her blood a bit. She's learned her lesson to be careful about when and where to point sharp objects at people, though, so the small pair of pruning shears stays concealed under her sweater for now. Either way, Hickey isn't likely to have any illusions about how welcoming Shiv feels towards him from the steely glare on her face.]

Don't give yourself too much credit. You couldn't even defend yourself against a fucking twink.
spotsalone: (110)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-03-31 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wow, why would Shiv need pruning shears to talk to her buddy?

He's actually happy to see her—until she says what she does. He's still smiling, though there's a sour tinge to it. ]


I can't take credit for my continued existence. There are clearly larger forces at play that we do not understand.

[ Yet. ]
thesharpestroy: (11)

[personal profile] thesharpestroy 2025-04-01 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, no shit. People who weren't even on the other side before are here. Sabo's not a jigsaw puzzle and you've still got your tongue.

Almost too bad, but I do wanna know how you stay so fucking smug after you murdered a sick teenage girl because it was easy. And I thought my murderers were batshit fuckheads.

[There's enough levity in her voice that she doesn't sound completely hateful, but there's a deep bitterness in her tone.]
spotsalone: (081)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-04-02 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ Wow! He loves this energy, but, like, direct it at someone else please? ]

I liked you better when we were both alive. For what it's worth, I murdered Andrew because she made herself a target. It's no more sinister than that.

[ But enough about that! Spill the tea, sis. ]

Who were your murderers? We never got anywhere with the fire in the library, I'm afraid.
thesharpestroy: (number)

[personal profile] thesharpestroy 2025-04-04 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
Funny. I liked being alive more too. And I think I liked you better when I thought you only killed someone for manly reasons like survival and not just because it's the easiest one to get away with. There'd at least be some fucking dignity to it if you hated her ass.

You can thank Richard for that library fire. And being the fucking asshole that stabbed me after Ayaka shanked me in the lung. ...I was so close too. What a bitch.

[Hickey is definitely the person Shiv cares the least about painting her motives in a sympathetic light for. She already has the moral high ground in her eyes on virtue of not murdering Andy.]
inefficient: (stare)

[personal profile] inefficient 2025-03-31 08:11 am (UTC)(link)
A miracle refers to something which happens outside the realm of scientific possibility. Therefore, definitionally, this is not a miracle.

[ So saith the disembodied(? invisible?) voice of a teenage girl. After a moment, it adds: ]

Hello.

[ No one said being dead means you can't be polite. ]
spotsalone: (024)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-03-31 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ oh who the fuck???

He looks around, a little puzzled. ]


Hello. Who are you?

[ ... ]

What about resurrecting from death strikes you as scientific possibility?
inefficient: (17-2)

[personal profile] inefficient 2025-04-01 09:23 am (UTC)(link)
I have surprised you. I am sorry. My name is Eiai Nano.

[ Surname Eiai, first name Nano. If you see a tall-ish silver-haired-ish blob in whatever reflective surface happens to be nearby, that's her! ]

We have been resurrected from death. Therefore, it has happened; therefore, it is possible.

[ can you argue with that logic ]
spotsalone: (078)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-04-02 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
[ ......................... ]

Fair enough.

[ HE REALLY CAN'T. ]

What's your story, then? Did Ish backstab you, as well?

[ He's still quite bitter about Ish revealing his lack of frog toy during trial... That bitch. ]
inefficient: (jiii)

[personal profile] inefficient 2025-04-02 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ah. A man of reason. Refreshing, after all that ghosts-aren't-real back-and-forth with Yaman. Nano approves. ]

Uncertain. I have little recollection of the prior time loops. I believe that Ish, the Witch of Ruin, was still our overseer, but he did not show his face. And I do not know how I... died.

[ And as much as it reassures Nano in general to know things, she's not sure she wants to. ]

Why did you remove your tongue?
spotsalone: (115)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-04-03 07:57 am (UTC)(link)
Right. The loops. So you've... been here for some time, then.

[ A discouraging prospect, but whatever. His story will play out differently, he's sure.

His mouth tightens at the question. ]


You witnessed that, did you?

[ Ugh. Embarrassing. ]

We discovered a god while we were stranded in the arctic. The god... can be controlled, but to gain that control, one must make an offering.
frostlight: (04)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-03-31 09:08 am (UTC)(link)
[Tia stands there with a hand on her hip, an eyebrow arched in the spirit of inquiry.]

What part of this is a miracle?

[There's nothing mind-blowing about this place to her.]
spotsalone: (046)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-03-31 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, Tiamat. Hello.

[ It's been a while! Wow! ]

Do you not consider it a turn of good fortune that we live on, despite our deaths in the palace?
frostlight: (03)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-04-01 10:51 am (UTC)(link)
That's because we're still dead. Our souls are conscious, but we don't have true flesh bodies.

[That's how she interprets their ambiguous states.]
spotsalone: (062)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-04-02 06:02 am (UTC)(link)
[ He waves that away. ]

I don't much care what we are. If we're souls, then, that means opportunities remain. We wouldn't have such a luxury if we were truly dead.

[ Like, dead-dead. Blipped from existence. This... this is workable! ]
frostlight: (03)

[personal profile] frostlight 2025-04-02 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
[She stares at him, then sighs.]

You don't have any idea how death works, do you?

Fine. Then what are you planning to do with this opportunity?
spotsalone: (050)

[personal profile] spotsalone 2025-04-03 07:08 am (UTC)(link)
[ He frowns, offended. ]

How could I? It's not as if I've died before. I'm sure I'll learn the ropes quickly enough, though you'll need to give a man a chance to settle in. I've only just arrived.

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