Graveyard

[lesmodsalouette]

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.

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NEW ARRIVALS: WEDNESDAY MASSACRE EDITION

[lesmodsalouette]

[It's been a much, much too exciting Wednesday at the Château Ambregris, and those of you who lost your lives in the gardens like a chain of daisies are only just now waking up here, in the ruined garden on the other side.

Surely everything will be more peaceful here, now that your lives are presumably over, along with any ambitions, dreams or (some of you additional) plans of murder you might have had.

Alas, the best-laid plans of mice and men -- you open your eyes to a storm on the horizon and a storm of flowers. The gardener's cottage seems quite crowded today.]

[snakeblood]

[ ...

You know, being dead is annoyingly still like being alive. He's still cold and tired for one. And disgustingly crowded.

He's still looks severely unamused to be here, but it's not like he's having a fit or anything. ]

So, what have you all been doing about whatever the problem is?

[diel]

[ hi hello he has no shame ]

Ahh, I knew you would stab me back.

[ as he thought, yoonhee was the best choice. ]

[snakeblood]

[ ... ]

So you had a death wish?

[ He also doesn't. ]

[diel]

Well... I don't know. But I thought it would be deserved if you did.

[snakeblood]

You're so weird.

[ He could ask why he even did this shit, but like. What's the point in that? ]

[siffriend]

[ Hello to you too, Yoonhee. Siffrin's got a bottle of wine not for him tucked into crossed arms, looking somewhere between warm and tired. ]

Negotiating. We've come to an agreement with The Witch, and... none of you have a say in what we ended up at.

[ Just So He Knows. ]

I'll fill you in later. [ aka i will make a special lil top level just for u two ] How do you feel?

[snakeblood]

Tired. Mentally. [ Between Sunday and Wednesday, this was kind of a lot of shit for him? ]

Did you guys get a good deal at least?

[siffriend]

[ .................. ]

I don't think you'll consider it a good deal, but yeah. It is.

[snakeblood]

[ Sus. ]

... Well, that figures. Whatever it is, you should've at least added that you all should get to kick him in the balls for all this.

[dumbface]

[ points at siffrin and just letting them be a proxy for the group as a whole. ]

They're negotiating. [ him?? he, uh.

the nonexistent crickets start their silent chirps. ]

Aren't you supposed to be alive?

[snakeblood]

Supposed to be, but am not anymore.

[ Hello... guy he barely saw. This is about the same for most people though... ]

[diel]

[ it's not the first time he's died, or been in hell or wherever this is, so he doesn't really care about the storm or the flowers.

what jumps out to him is that it's crowded here. the others? the dead? he looks around frantically, eyes scanning the cottage. where is he? where is - ]

Siffrin?

[ later: of course, he's tracking down people!! it's just a matter of if he gets to them before they get to him. this is a threat - ]

[siffriend]

Hi.

[ There's-- both a warmth in their voice, but a firmness too. Arms crossed, a bottle of wine tucked into one... It is not for his friend. ]

How're you feeling?

[ Before...

... Before there's gonna be questions and chiding if appropriate. ]

*them!!!!

[diel]

[ so eager to find them and quick to close the distance - and yet now that they stand before him, two steps away, he hesitates. he opens his arms and they hang there with the weight of his crimes.

he wants to reach out and hug siffrin to make sure they’re all there. does their heart beat here? or does ish still have it? he wants to check, but the choice is siffrin’s whether or not they want to touch this monster they once knew as jin, as yoru.

siffrin had believed a good in him. ]

I’m… well, I don’t know! I’m a mess? Haha… and now I’m here.

[siffriend]

You are.

[ ... ]

Kinda hoped I wouldn't have to see anyone else from Water Lily, though. Here.

[ (Because it hurts. You're so happy, so so happy to be able to see them again, and yet--)

Siffrin'll put the wine down, stepping closer to take the other's hands. Reaching out first. Touching first, a small smile on their face. They're both monsters, but his friend doesn't understand why. ]

... I missed you both. [ Yoru, Jin. ] But I only want to see Yoru. Jin... shouldn't have to deal with this, too. Not out of nowhere.

[ Not that they think Yoru'll have a problem with that set up. ]

[diel]

[ ah, jin… the child sleeping inside him. yoru thinks so, too. he’s been unfair to his other self. ]

Don’t worry.

[ his hands curl around siffrin’s, firm rather than gentle. a desperation to believe they truly are standing here together. ]

He’s sleeping and he will stay sleeping until…

[ he pauses to consider what comes after until. ]

The dream ends, I suppose. He’s never awake for the kill.

[ yoru’s never let him see the final moments. ]

[distain]

That might be one of the stupider stunts I've seen in my time.

[So, he's going to fit in very well in the graveyard. They are a group of people simply married to pulling reckless, wild, dangerous, and problematic things. At least Andrew no longer feels quite so alone in it.

It's strange that they spent so much of their time in the castle at odds, and yet her last memory felt like some strange truce. It makes sense that he's here.]

[diel]

Oh, an achievement then.

[ he smiles at her quietly, not at all insulted. she is right. he doesn’t regret what he’s done, but he knows there were other paths he could have chosen.

sometimes, however, love points only one way and he found that his pointed to heartbreak.

that’s all. ]

… Thanks for sitting with me before I did something stupid.

[distain]

It's a crown I'll hand over happily.

[Because she's a self-centered person, it's difficult - if not impossible - for Andrew to see her own stumble as anything more than the first domino that's led to a colossal toppling in its wake. Even her responsibility is somewhat selfish, though she's never once denied her actions.]

Had you already decided then? When you released those little creatures?

[diel]

Yeah.

[ did she enjoy watching that with him, he wonders. it was peaceful, made so by her presence. he had until then been lonely in his decision.

a stupid one, and he knows he didn’t deserve the company. still… ]

I think… I understand a little more what you were looking at the stars for that first night. But, I guess, in my case… it’s because I know even if I look, he won’t. He’ll move on. So I freed the fireflies and then - myself.

Or I tried! And now we’re here.

[ there’s more to it, more people involved, but who cares now. ]

[siffriend]

[ Because Siffrin isn't going to explain this three times--

Please. All of you behave. That means Yoonhee and YoruJin if nothing else, Caroline sweetie you're doing great. A long sip of the wine they've been nursing. They can all be inside for this. Nice and warm.

(You wish you were back in the solarium.) ]

... Okay. So, um... You're all kinda late on making contracts with The Witch, but... you're included in the deal we already made. So lucky you.

[ Very. Lucky them. ]

In exchange for taking care of the instabilities between the realms, or... the "contamination", as Yaman called it yesterday, we'll be given bodies and allowed to return home or to another world of our choice. Not a bad deal. Some of us had additional things we traded for, but... don't worry about it.

[ (You can't wait. You want to see him so, so badly.) ]

The bodies... won't be the same as you left them, though. We'll be "more than" what we are now. Stronger, faster, more durable... is how Yaman described it, and we won't be mortal. Also, we'll probably see ghosts. 'Cause we're more spirit than person and stuff, like how we are right now.

[ ... ]

Any questions?

[snakeblood]

[ "Won't be mortal"..... He can only think that doesn't bode that well. Would he have to go through the whole process again too? But before his mind wanders over other topics related to a certain someone, he snorts at the last bit. ]

Well, good luck with the ghosts. Normals don't enjoy it very much.

What do you mean "taking care of the instabilities" though?

[siffriend]

Going into the maze and fighting whatever's inside, probably.

[ More than likely. Fighting's just what Siffrin's used to with stuff like this, so... it's where their mind goes first. It's all black and oppressive, now. If Yoonhee hadn't noticed. ]

... Or sewing them up. We just have to stop it from getting further than it has.

cw abuse

[snakeblood]

Sewing...... I don't know how to sew.

[ So fighting it is? Well, he's beat up Yuri plenty of times anyway for his insubordination... But it's not like Yuri fights back. ]