graveyard.

[foxhounds]

You remember dying. In fact, you remember the exact feeling and fear of how you died, and yet in the next moment, you're suddenly standing in a cold room. You're not sure how you got here at all, but it's as if you were suddenly put here the moment after you died. As you look around, the first thing you'll notice is that you're standing in front of an open casket. And you're inside. The corpse inside the casket is definitely you, and it's also definitely dead, which certainly makes this confusing. Luckily, here's someone here to explain. When you wake up, there's footsteps walking closer, and then a familiar face appears. Iván is here, or someone that looks very much like her is. All she starts off with is two simple words— "You're dead." Which would seem obvious, but she explains that you have been before you ever arrived to the island. The shipwreck and the island are't real, after all. This is purgatory, and the Hunt is a way to judge the souls of the living. People show their true nature when they're put in a stressful situation, so it was deemed that this was the way that these judgements would be passed. She explains that you'll know your fate when the game ends, but if you really can't wait that long, you could always ask, but hope isn't lost. After all, the "killers" are on your side. If they can win the game, then everyone can come back to life. They know this, and it's why they're fighting so hard to win. It's a shame that the odds don't seem to be in their favor, but that's also part of the Hunt. — Exploring your new surroundings, you'll realize that you're likely at the bottom of that giant sinkhole, at least if that light far above you is any indication. You no longer feel the need to eat or sleep anymore (technically, you never did, but the habits of being alive are hard to break), so it's a good thing there's enough to do while the game continues. You can watch the proceedings of the Hunt in one room where there's plenty of comfortable couches to sit in and lounge, as well as a fully stocked bar, if you feel like indulging. Another room offers a game room with cards, billiards, and any other games you'd like to play in a group. If you ask your host nicely, she might provide more, but for now, there's not much to do other than to watch and wait for the Hunt to end.

Comments

[snackoosniper]

[ insert It's Raining Men joke ]

Ahhh!

[ After the initial jump-out-of-her-skin phase, Ema huddles around the body with everyone else. Admittedly, this is the most interesting thing that's happened down here so far... ]

Someone finally did it! ... Should we be expecting more of these in the near future?

[ Automatically, she starts to move the body into a supine position to check for signs of life (lol) or unexpected injury. What's the point, really, but leaving him in an awkward ragdoll pile is just... awkward. ]

[ossifragant]

[He approaches Ema awkwardly, examining the body, even though he doesn't think it'll do much good.]

....Why isn't he waking up?

[They're all ghosts, aren't they? So he should be waking up right now, like the others did.]

[snackoosniper]

For the same reason we didn't wake up in our original bodies either, I imagine.

[ Referring to the bodies still lying in all of those coffins. ]

Maybe his body is too broken to function, so he has to wake up in another one.

[ossifragant]

[He looks down at the body again before he has to look away. It's a little unsettling, even if they're all really dead.]

Maybe. In that case, I wonder what we should do about this. It might be kind of freaky for him to discover his own body out in the open like this.

[Like seeing it in a coffin isn't creepy enough?]

[snackoosniper]

[ Handling corpses isn't new to her, but no one ever told her she'd have to do it in the afterlife... Alas. ]

Would you say seeing it in a coffin is any better? ... Anyway, better ask the Judge if she needs his body for anything. If not, we'll figure something out.

[ossifragant]

..Yeah, that makes sense.

I'm sure he'll probably wake up soon, in any case.

[...]

To be honest, I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner.

[snackoosniper]

Scientifically speaking, it would be risky to carry a body all this way. Too many eyes around. Especially with all this blood -- it would leave a trail that anyone could follow.

[ Even though it's almost pitch black out?? Sure. ]

The kill happened nearby, I would guess.

[foxhounds]

[ He is definitely Very Dead. Like so dead. For real.

However, while it's not quite possible to tell whether he was alive when he fell or not, chances are the answers are no. After all, there's a pretty nasty stab wound in his side (though they won't be able to figure out what it came from), but there's a much more obvious stab wound in his throat. That stab is fairly clean, so someone experienced with blades would be able to guess that this stab came from an uchigatana. ]

[snackoosniper]

[ Hmmmmmyeahhhh she's gonna assume he was way ded before he hit the ground.

They never let her poke around the bodies too much at crime scenes back home -- if anything, they had to monitor her like an overbold toddler -- but she did learn a thing or two in Europe. An aspiring forensic scientist doesn't live with a coroner and let opportunities go to waste. So Ema pokes around Royce's body with at least a small degree of professionalism...

... Not that there's much to deduce besides the obvious. ]

Two stab wounds, one to the side and one to the throat. It's likely someone threw him in to dispose of the evidence in his wounds.

[inspiritus]

Perhaps nervous that someone would try to deduce from the stab wounds as to who out of the remaining it may have been. Interesting.

[ Tone impassive, but he is possibly slightly impressed at the thoughtfulness. Although, it is surprising no one had thought of it earlier... ]

[snackoosniper]

Right. I expect someone up there will guess that the body was tossed in here, though. Who knows what they'll try to do about it?

[ inb4 someone comes parachuting down ]

[inspiritus]

After a general amount of the usual useless conversation, I imagine. They might just leave it as is, if they are still wise enough to do so.

[ Or gets dead. But he doubts that... ]

[snackoosniper]

It might seem a world of importance to them, especially if they don't have any more leads. A body goes missing completely -- it must have carried a decisive piece of evidence! After all, it's a startling new break in the pattern.

[ this is a lot of casual talk over royce's horribly mangled body... ]

[odagumi]

[ One of a few resident uchigatanas here though Souza wasn't too concerned with what just happened and he's hardly concerned with looking over the body either. Yet he figures he might as well since it's at least something to do while they all wait out the not so uneventful night until the sixth day. Perhaps, he's more curious to after hearing about the stab wounds too. ]

Hm...the stab wound in his throat was from an Uchigatana blade. There's certainly no shortage of those with the living so it's hard to say who did it exactly but. [ Hand to chin. ] Only Kashuu and Tsurumaru had those. Kashuu had himself and Yamato, and Tsurumaru had my own Uchigatana blade there was also Kasen himself...though he's far the less likely.

[snackoosniper]

[ ... Dare she ask what an Oochy-whatever blade is? While that list narrows down the suspects, it's still an awful amount. ]

You know, I expected the Generals among you sword folk to ditch the swords by now. While killing, anyway. It would be a little too incriminating for my tastes.

[odagumi]

[ Just a type of blade really, one of many that are floating around up there. ]

Hm, me as well. It may be why we've always been so suspected all those days. It would have been nice if they changed it up at some point, they're only hurting themselves since eyes are already on Tsurumaru after the last trial.

[snackoosniper]

Too bad you weren't a General after all, hm? They might've had something to gain from you.

[ you have a wonderful criminal mind, souza, CONGRATS ]

[wartorns]

[chiming in:]

We've only ever targeted one of the swords. I can't speak for what happened after I came here, but it sounds like Gi-ne and the rest went after Jason last night. I don't think any of the other swords were on our list of targets, but who the hell knows.

["List of targets" said with a bit of vile behind it. He really hates referring to it like that.]

[snackoosniper]

... Oh! No, I meant swords as weapons, not as people.

[ darn sword boys gotta b so confusing sometimes ]

Actually, I expected the swordfolk to take minimal casualties. With so many of them around, there was a high probability that at least one of them would be a General... and we've seen how protective they are of each other.

[inspiritus]

[ Well why not. ]

It was likely Tsurumaru's, then. Since he is a General, he would have had to have been involved. Regardless, this is certainly quite a way of finding out our first casualty for the next day.

How long do you think it'll take for them to find out the body was hidden?

[meatery]

[Been sitting here watching Royce's body and the far better investigation than any of the other corpses got- man, it's lucky they killed Ema early.]

I don't think we were going to go after Royce tonight though. [Frowns.] Unless they changed their minds... Or he just ran off and stabbed him on his own...

[Always a possibility with Tsurumaru.]

[odagumi]

It's...very possible that it might have been Kashuu though I wouldn't claim to know how deep his grudge after what happened to Yamato went.

[inspiritus]

It could be either of those two, although I confess I do not know that man too well, and you may have a better idea of how he'd act than I.

[ He starts to figure that Tsurumaru is more unpleasant than just with his words, now. He never got along with him very well... or many of the other swords, considering his actions, but still. ]

There is always the chance someone else could have used a blade in that style to kill Royce as well, I suppose.

[odagumi]

Most likely. Ah, he's using my blade to kill people now then. [ He's not sure how he feels about that. ] Depending on how many bodies are going to be found tomorrow, I can only wonder.

[yasusada]

[ As quick as Yamato would possibly say "That may be it!" he is a little concerned about how many times Kashuu's name had appeared. Then again, it doesn't sound too unlikely that Tsurumaru wouldn't use Souza's blade for something like this. ]

They did find Tsurumaru Kuninaga likely of being .. General so someone could be checking him tonight, right? But in the end.. [ A pause, he can only shake his head. ]

I hope it doesn't look that bad for Kiyomitsu.