GRAVEYARD

[pandatreasure]

[You know you must have died—nothing is ever easy around here, certainly not quick, so you must remember burning, bleeding, falling, dying?

And yet. You're waking up.

Do you recognize it here, once you pick yourself up off of the hard floor, maybe half-strewn across a couch or beanbag chair? This room died, too: you're in the library, good as new and maybe better than that, only barely smelling of burnt paper and you only sometimes kick up ash, just like those old wounds that finished you off only ache every now and again, dully.

The book selection isn't quite the same as you remember it—all the bad erotica that didn't die is missing here, sorry to say, but so are the books on everyone's home worlds. Snoop around enough and behind the librarian's desk, you'll find tablets: one for each participant of the game, and with enough experimentation, you'll find the one that reacts when you press the button. You're already logged into your Recyclr account and can read the feed, but the same rules apply: 140 characters, one tweet a day. The voting app is gone, replaced by a sort of security monitoring kind of app. Characters can view different rooms of the school, or even place a few side by side so they can view a few at a time, and they'll be able to see the living go about their day to day lives. There's even an archive of recordings, but only the important ones: murders, executions, investigations, trial highlight reels, and major events like libraries being burned down. Was watching yourself die once not enough? Boy have I got good news for you!!!

It's kind of exciting that you can go around touching stuff, probably, despite being super dead and vaguely transparent in a way you notice like your own breathing; you don't and then you do and it's all you can think about, but your tangibility only extends to the inanimate: try to touch any of your fellow deceased and you'll find that you just pass right on through like touching cold air.

The windows aren't bolted up with those big metal plates on this side of things, but look out of them anytime and it's just pitch-black and still outside, so that's demoralizing. There is, of course, the door out of the library—but for now it's locked up tight. Whatever is a ghost to do?]

((Recyclr

Offerings/Letters
Day 11
Day 14
Day 16))

Comments

[cluelesscavewoman]

Why was it all of you?

[What's next Masazumi showing up.]

[purrtagonist]

Because I--

[. . . he gestures. a little helpless]

[cluelesscavewoman]

... Is this because Erika told you to kill her?

[Just says in front of everyone.]

[purrtagonist]

[WELL, THANKS FUTAYO]

No. It wasn't.

[cluelesscavewoman]

[It's only a secret if someone tells her it's a secret.]

Then why kill my other friend? She did not want to see me...

[purrtagonist]

[so so so so tired, but keeping himself together, because Futayo deserves an explanation, too]

. . . she didn't do anything to deserve what happened to her.

It wasn't anything other than circumstances, and me being a bad assistant.

[cluelesscavewoman]

I was a bad assistant as well...

[She looks down. She understands that response, and accepts it.]

[purrtagonist]

[. . . mmmmmffff. more like Erika was AN ASSHOLE to Futayo, but. . . he sighs a little, gives her a wan smile]

[sticks his tongue out]

[and]

[pppfffffffphtttt]

[cluelesscavewoman]

[At least she doesn't say confusing things.

But the noise gets her to poke her head back out of the Porn Fort.

...

Pffbbt

It's a pathetic attempt, but she's looking now.]

[purrtagonist]

[quirks his brows, his smile widening a little bit. pfffffffphth]

[he looks so ridiculous blowing raspberries like this]

[cluelesscavewoman]

[She's still frowning. It's kinda silly, her looking so grumpy while sticking her tongue out.]

Pffffffffth Pfffffffft-

[purrtagonist]

[heheh. . .]

You're getting a little better at it.

[cluelesscavewoman]

[That gets a smile. She can't hold up sulking for long, it's not like you stole her food or something terrible like that...Not that she eats anymore.]

I need to get a lot better at a lot of things. There is much that I still do not know...

...I should probably get better at writing. The glasses boy scolded me for spelling my occupation wrong on my transfer papers. I'll have to do them again now that I am a ghost.

[purrtagonist]

[you won't be a ghost forever, he wants to say. but that would call attention to his motive, and. yeah]

I could probably help you with your writing, if you'd like.

[cluelesscavewoman]

[She has already accepted this unlife, even if she can no longer clothesline people by shoving her arm out.]

Thank you. I am not very good at it. Kazuno was still teaching me when she was destroyed.

[purrtagonist]

[your unlife will eventually be a not-unlife, Futayo! which means it will be a life again]

Let me get a paper and a pen for you, okay?

[standing up to fetch just that]

[cluelesscavewoman]

[But what if being a ghost isn't as bad as being brought back?]

I think there are only books here.

[very_good_end]

[scoffs]

That was a one-time offer he didn't take advantage of.

[cluelesscavewoman]

Did you tell him that?

[very_good_end]

He understood.

Part of it was that I would create a real mystery out of it. There was no mystery in how he actually murdered me.

[cluelesscavewoman]

... No. They just argued and got themselves killed.

[Blunt, but she isn't impressed. Even if she doesn't really get why Erika is upset.]

[very_good_end]

... What?

[cluelesscavewoman]

Those three. They ignored what we were trying to tell them and are now here as well...

[very_good_end]

You didn't exactly set a good example, Futayo-san.

[cluelesscavewoman]

I do not understand...

[She stops to glance at the ground and think. Then jolting her head back up.]

Was Akira doing what he thought was best like he told me to? He started crying to.