graveyard part five

[gamehead]

hunter's game the graveyard You wake up in an unfamiliar cabin. At first, it almost seems like you're in an entirely different place and that everything had been just a dream. The interior of the cabin looks nothing like the run-down, old-timey shacks that you had been living in before. Everything in here is sleek and modern, from the enormous flat-screen TV mounted on the wall to the fridge and mini-bars stocked with all your favorite foods. There aren't any individual rooms in here, just a common area large enough to house everyone comfortably, no matter how many more people join you...and there will be plenty more people joining you before the week is over. Because if you look outside the window, it quickly becomes clear that not only are you still in Prayer's Pass, but that you are no longer among the realm of the living. Judging from the tombstones directly outside, you're now in what had been the abandoned broken-down cabin in the graveyard. The cabin's not all that changed; the world outside has gone completely grey and everything you see appears to be faded and blurry. The only things that remain sharp and in color are what's inside the cabin, including your fellow ghosts. Occasionally, people who are still alive may enter, but it's clear that what they're seeing is completely different from what you're seeing. The door's unlocked; however, a mysterious force prevents you from stepping beyond the threshold, no matter how hard you may try. After all, this cabin is a cage for the dead - a gilded one, perhaps, but a cage nonetheless. On the flat-screen TV plays everything that is currently happening in the town. It will shut off once night starts...and something else will appear instead. (The graveyard so far)

Comments

[expiatrice]

Let's not drink anything to the living, a boring base would make for a boring game.

...

How about a shot every time Holden is threatened? Oh, but I don't approve of alcohol and certainly not underage drinking. Will you settle for soda drinks or fruit juice, Joshua?

[condescent]

People are threatening Holden? [wide-eyed look of horror] Why, who would ever dream of doing such a terrible thing?

[WOW CIEL NO] And have all that sugar go straight to my hips? Besides, soda and fruit juice sadly won't do much to erase the memory of the last few trials, and that is half the point of this.

1/2

[expiatrice]

That's irrelevant. It'd make for a livelier criteria than taking a shot every time someone on TV agonizes about abstaining, wouldn't it?

[CASUALLY BRUSHES OFF...]

2/2

[expiatrice]

Ah, I haven't thought of that. Do you really think that could potentially destroy your figure, though? I've told Charles all the churros he's been wolfing down might do him harm, but he didn't care at all. Do you insist on drinking, then? [she sniffs once in mild disapproval...] I suppose I can't say anything, not given all you've had to experience during the last few days. Alcohol set aside though, how about something more innocuous and all around age-friendly instead? It's not very original, but Truth or Dare is still a timeless classic, isn't it?

[condescent]

Unlike our dear Charles, I'm afraid I've never had much of a sweet tooth to begin with. But if you're that worried about it, let me reassure you that I don't usually drink at all. It's just that I'm also usually never this terribly bored.

Aww, no one here you'd like to spin the bottle for? Hee hee, that sounds fine to me though. Shall we do a shot or a drink every time there's a truth or dare we'd like to avoid? [the only way he will ever be drinking during this game is if people only ask him truths]

1/2

[expiatrice]

You're also in a completely human body, dead or not. Just please keep that in mind, okay?

2/2

[expiatrice]

[THAT SAID!]

Please don't suggest such blasphemous things to a woman of the cloth, now. That sounds reasonable, yes, if you insist on involving alcohol. I'd say something against potential brawls and how violence isn't good, but with so many nations here, the point is moot.

[...sounds legit.]

Would that be starting soon?

[encored]

[PIPING UP from his place now hanging lazily over the back of the couch.]

Don't be cruel. He died a miserable death, he should be able to drink as much as he'd like. [...] Though he may want to sit out the Holden shot game since he'd wind up flat on his back in just a few rounds. It's rather incredible how often the boy is threatened, is it not? He must be quite unfortunate.

[expiatrice]

...I suppose I can clean up after you both, it's the least that I can do. Just keep in mind that alcohol clouds judgment, but if you're drinking with the explicit goal to drown yourself out into blissful oblivion, wouldn't that be good?

I also said 'threaten' because it sounds more civil than 'beaten up' or 'justly abused'. Divine punishment still exists in the afterlife, isn't that neat?

[encored]

Precisely! After this mess of a trial and the next one up which will likely be even worse, I'd say we all deserve a little blissful oblivion.

[chinhandsing...] I'm quite appreciative of this divine punishment right now. I must say that justly abused sounds just as civil, though. [charles no]

[expiatrice]

You can't join in with your body as it is though, and that's final.

[said with a WIDE SMILE BUT THIS IS QUITE FINAL, NOT BOOKING ROOM FOR ARGUMENTS...]

You're appreciative of many things, and they're seldom good. Still, I think we can overlook that once in a while, especially when we're all ghosts in a strangely literal sense. Does that sound fair to you, Charles?

[encored]

Please, you aren't my mother. [even if he will be wailing at her accordingly if he LOSES HIS BET WITH JOSHUA]

It's an exception I'll take. Though I'll have you know the things I appreciate are all excellent things that should be appreciated.

[expiatrice]

Ahh, that misconception already got out farther than I expected~

[...ciel pls]

...Mm hmm.

[that hum is just dismissive now, SHE KNOWS THE TRUTH...]

[encored]

[wait wait wait]

What do you mean by that?

[expiatrice]

Mean what?

[was it ever mentioned

OBFUSCATE STUPIDITY is her favorite card...]

[encored]

[CIEL NO]

You know exactly what I mean. Have you been spreading lies behind my back in the time we were parted?

[expiatrice]

Of course not. All that needed to be said and done, we already did it while we were alive, didn't we?

...

Well, except the staying with you and shoot more wolves part, I suppose!

[she raised him well]

[encored]

[he's going to destroy Spain twice over if he ever finds out that was said...]

I had a few more things that I wanted to do, actually. ...Anyway, that has nothing to do with the misconceptions you've no doubt been flinging all over the place while I was down in that miserable town slaving away over a plan that I could only leave in the hands of morons.

[expiatrice]

Don't take it so hard, now. It's not your fault those still out there are so terribly softhearted. [no don't encourage him...] Besides, what's so bad with having me as a surrogate mother? I've always wanted to raise children!

[babby bats are a unique variant, though...]

[encored]

If I had known this is how things would turn out, I wouldn't have bothered trying to save Sayaka and just kept myself alive long enough to take the last two wolves to trial. [HE'S REALLY WISHING HE DID THAT... these softhearted survivors ugh]

Go pluck up an actual child if you're so keen on raising one of your own, then. I don't want any surrogate parental figure at all, and you would be low on the list if I did.

[expiatrice]

Now now, there's no use crying over spilled milk. [ciel that's just because you can't hold grudges to save your own life (that you don't care about anyway.......)]

That you don't want one only reinforces the point, you know.

[she'll never find a finer specimen anywhere else!!! ...THAT IS--]

[goddamnphonies]

Hey, go ahead and make sure I can't play, why don't you.

[he's just entirely given up on even trying to maintain a safe distance]

[expiatrice]

Really? Would you be that much against taking a shot every time you're threatened?

[silly holden, you're not excluded!! who DOESN'T want to drink to their own doom?]

[goddamnphonies]

Oh, no, I just thought you were gonna hold that whole underaged drinking thing against me.

[expiatrice]

I'm normally very against it, yes, but goodness knows how far things here have already degenerated. Just don't make a mess out of things, or I'll be cross with you once you wake back up.

[do ghosts get hangovers?

WE'RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT??]