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lesmodsalouette) wrote2025-03-16 03:54 am
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.
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.
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.
trial watchalong
no subject
... I can't believe they're having malanga fritters without me.
[ (Your favorite!!!!!!!! You'd kill for a plate right now!!!!!!!!!!)
And-- a soft huff at The Witch's announcement, too. About no self votes. ]
Just like I warned him. [ ... ] I hope they don't pick the wrong person this time.
[ be kinda awkward if they did it twice in a row ]
no subject
[ Siffrin
doesn't really seem to know what their face is doing, apparently, considering they look far too happy at the names spoken by others. ]
I guess they've both made themselves to be pretty big targets for different reasons.
no subject
Andy’s a sick girl who’s barely an adult. What sick fuck went after her?
cw implied suicide
[ There were
a number of people upset by her accusation, after all. Siffrin swirls the wine idly, staring down into the dark liquid.
... ]
If it wasn't for the window, [ the injury could be brushed off by the explosion to Siffrin, ] then... it'd probably look like she did her to herself. With how it was all blocked off.
no subject
[ Hey it's that ghost girl that you can only see in reflections. She's helping. ]
no subject
(You
don't like ghosts! But she's harmless, or so you've come to understand. Also, you really just don't like ghosts that look like you. Nano's more of...
...
An abacus. Kind of.) ]
Do you know what the probability was last time?
no subject
[ She regards Siffrin for a moment, or seems to. Her image is blurry. ]
I am sorry you ended up within that 0.931 chance.
no subject
[ Spoken up brasher, maybe... about their own thoughts on it being more than one person -- rather than just that once, press it again and again.
(You think a lot about what you could have done differently. What you should have done.
But you don't get a second chance. Not like back in your own world.) ]
Kinda relaxing not having to be part of it now though.
no subject
...
(You don't want to think of it. Of who would resent her enough to do so.)
Siffrin's tucking their face more into their cloak, but they'll offer up a very quiet comment. ]
Yoru was really mad.
no subject
no subject
Yoru was really mad. Since I'm his.
[ (And you get it.
You'd kill someone, too.) ]
He said he wouldn't forgive anyone who voted for me. And... Hwy was angry too, but I said it was okay. So I don't think he would do anything.
[ Maybe. Maybe.
The others were upset, but revenge upset? Siffrin doesn't think so. ]
... But I wouldn't want to vote for either of them, if I had to, so I'm glad I don't.
no subject
He doesn't seem like the type, but I dunno. [ siffrin would know better, right? he barely spoke to yoru. his impression of him is "quiet." and hwy...
...hm.
turns out, he doesn't know who hwy is! ]
Well, if it was them, they might get away with it...? [ is that helpful...? ]
no subject
THE DRAGON CHU
CHU!!!!!!!!!
Yoru doesn't seem like the type, but neither does Siffrin; this is the only reason why Siffrin can think he could. ]
... I don't know if I want them to get away with it, if they are.
[ It's difficult. On one hand, if they did it-- they hurt Andrew, which Siffrin... has other feelings about (happy happy you're happy you get to see her again soon soon soon), but it doesn't erase the anger on his own part about a friend being hurt. And he doesn't want to see them hurt, either.
On the other, if they did do it and they're convicted, then...
(... Then you can see them again. One of them, anyway. You hope it's Yoru. You miss him.
You also miss not knowing what he and Cain do in their spare time but there's just some things you have to move past.) ]
At least Chara's bringing it up. Maybe... something good'll come out of it, this time.
no subject
it sounds really complicated. and speaking of complicated... all that stuff ish is saying about sabo is way, way above his paygrade.
slowly, he scratches the back of his head. ]
no subject
Yeah, that sure is above most people's paygrade. ]
Of course it wouldn't work. You can't collect if you're dead. That isn't how contracts work, I'm pretty sure.
[ Though the amount of contracts Siffrin's made so far in their life has been two of them exactly so. Who can say. ]
... And it's definitely not how wishes work.
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I didn't know wishes worked to begin with.
[ it'd be nice if they did, though. ]
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[ It's in a book somewhere, written in a language (only you can understand), beyond when Siffrin's from--
but it was something they heard once, long ago. A memory that struggles to the surface. Like the rituals that go with it. ]
So they work. Just not the way someone might think.
[ (...
You think this carnival is very hard to watch. For a variety of reasons.) ]
I'm, um. Gonna go lay down. I don't... really like seeing my roommates being accused, when...
[ ...
They're just gonna go. ]
no subject
magic, he thinks, can only do so much for someone.
he listens for a while, both to any chatter on this side and on the other, until siffrin speaks again. ]
...It's okay.
[ he's not great at comforting people, so he doesn't know what to say. he at least tries to keep his voice gentle, though. hopefully siffrin will be all right. ]
no subject
What do you think happens if we kill a guy here?