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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.
no subject
It is... different.
[ unlike g'raha, yoru hadn't expected this place. a void of spirits maybe, an empty of ghosts. but flowers... perhaps he should have. ]
But it's not bad. Siffrin's here. [ most important. siffrin makes death softer. ] Hickey, Andrew, and the others. Some of them were... are... quite worried about you.
no subject
[ A little smile, because it's true. Siffrin will make death easier, and it was one of the thoughts he had as he bled out in the Observatory. ]
I would like to see the others as well, of course.
[ Just saying!!! But at the mention of others worrying... ah. He hates that he's caused worry, but it can't be helped. ]
I do hope seeing me in something akin to the flesh will bring them some ease.
no subject
[ yoru won't ask him if he's ok. what a stupid thing to ask after someone's been murdered. he didn't ask yoonhee, who he killed personally, so he won't ask g'raha. ]
What do you need to know to make things... easier? For lack of a better word.
no subject
I... suppose I would like to know of your progress here. Are things carrying along apace?
no subject
[ like an hour ago, sorry. ]
Stuff's been fought, closed, sealed. [ the last one has a bit of a question mark; he's not sure about that. ] The others have made a deal for all of us who are dead. Ish will provide us with bodies, and we may return to the place of our choosing.
The trade-off is we aren't mortal anymore. We're something else: tsukumogami, lives tied to items. That's how I understand it anyway.
no subject
Lives tied to items? I suppose that provides an explanation for the changes I spotted in the capybara and the knife, however...
[ Hm. ]
Will my own life be tied to such an object?
no subject
[ don't rule out the fighting just yet?? who knows they may get to. ]
And welcome to the Plum Blossoms, by the way.
no subject
[ Plum Blossom is nice. He likes it, as disoriented as he still feels.
The welcome actually earns a smile from him, one that isn't tense. ]
You seem to be faring well, Yoru.
no subject
[ a team name, for morale! and it worked, they only lost one [cw] and broke one [cw] during the fight.
he has no clue what the cottage is called. ]
Well... [ the melancholy air around g'raha? it hangs around yoru too, in the corners of his smile. a little duller than when he was alive. ] I'm... glad to be here. And I am sorry I didn't say goodbye to you.
... I'm sorry you didn't get to choose to say goodbye either.
[ he doesn't know how much that matters now that they aren't permadead, but he offers it. and he does, in his own way, mean it. ]
no subject
With time, perhaps. ]
No need to apologize, friend.
[ They can say goodbye now, when they all choose to depart. ]
I appreciate the sentiment, truly. I... admittedly am still somewhat shaken by it all, but in due time that too will fade.
no subject
Even if you say there's no need, the feelings have to go somewhere.
[ and g'raha has always been steady. if yoru really thinks about it, knowing the true culprit, it makes sense why he was chosen. but yoru is as much of a creature as the one that killed g'raha, so he is selfish in that way. ]
There is a lot of time now. But I think you're used to that, Mister Physically 24?
no subject
That makes him laugh, and he realizes then what it means that they're... no longer mortal.
Ah.
He... needs to think on that, and his smile dulls, tired around the edges. ]
My true age is not quite so high compared to many in the castle.
[ Those in the thousands really have him beat. ]
no subject
[ he leaves the implication there. g'raha can confirm that with manba. ]
Immortal with a catch? Something like that! [ he shrugs and smiles. ] I know the others will want to talk to you, so... go to them when you're ready. Or they'll chase you down.
no subject
[ Just like the tower. Ah.... this feels so similar and he doesn't... really know what to think. He'll have to sit on this, let it roll over him in waves of exhaustion like it did on the First, and then figure out what exactly he wants to do with it.
Pressing forward, of course, but how. ]
I will, you have no need to worry. I appreciate you taking the time to inform me of the goings on, as complicated as they seem to be.
no subject
[ he gives a small wave. ]
We’ll talk again when we can.
no subject
[ And he gives a little wave! Bye, Yoru!! ]