sinking down, down

[facultwist]

Death is a drop into a blackness that swallows you. You feel the movement of not air but shadow across your face as you plummet, and there is no bottom. No crash.

If there is another side, you do not reach it.

It is neither the light of heaven or the fires of hell that greets you when you wake. And wake you do, to the buzz and flicker of old fluorescent lights.

You are laid out beside a full-size competitive swimming pool, half-filled with stagnant water. The doors out are blocked off by locked doors covered in caution tape. The locker rooms are long since emptied, paint peeling from the humidity. The only signs of habitation are a few pieces of scattered graffiti.

Welcome to your new home. There's no sunlight, no indication of time passing. Just you and each other and your thoughts. the stagnant water bubbles a little occasionally, but there's nothing in it.

Before long you'll realize that you no longer need to eat or drink. You might notice your hand go through something if you don't focus. You're a ghost now. What's that they say about unfinished business?

Comments

[ergine]

[ Well, good, because she doesn't find her actions comparable with Vanity's at all? She never intended to sacrifice everyone else for her survival, for one thing. ]

Well, I suppose I can't really begrudge her that.

[ She does in fact sound extremely neutral about this. ]

[sweetsynergy]

[how the fuck are you back to this even when you're dead, are you really doing this just to annoy her-]

Oh, real generous of you.

[ergine]

[ Kohaku had seemed prepared to largely blow Vanity off, but... At that, her eyes lock onto her with what instead is an almost-unnerving level of focus. ]

What else am I meant to say, Vanity? Should I go run and hide?

[sweetsynergy]

So what, you accepted your fate so you just get to smile and shrug and pretend it doesn't matter anymore? Fuck off.

[ergine]

[ ...inhales ]

I accepted my fate a very long time ago. I don't need to pretend at all.

[sweetsynergy]

[There's a lot she could say here. A lot she wants to.]

...Sure, Kohaku.

[ergine]

Now, [ cheerfully: ] is there something you need, Vanity?

[sweetsynergy]

You know, I don't know.

[She huffs out an annoyed breath, standing up on the pool's edge.]

I was right though, we really are too fucking alike. Dunno about you, but I fucking hate that.

[ergine]

[ Kohaku merely shrugs. She hasn't thought much about her feelings on the matter, and it's unlikely that she'll start now. ]

Well, if it bothers you so much, you could always try being someone else.

[ This probably does not disprove the point! ]

[sweetsynergy]

It'd be pretty damn convenient if it were that easy.

[She starts walking away.]