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

GHOST PICNIC MEETING

[thatsplato]

[Misty's been stalking Thomasin's preparations as much as she physically can -- there's the unfortunate aspect of needing to return to the pool semi-frequently, but she's relishing in the fact of lingering in the background, planning for a party that no one can tell her she's not invited to.

Shortly before the picnic starts, though, it gets to be too much. She has to share. So, she heads back to the pool, eyes glimmering with excitement.]

They're having a picnic and bonfire! We should go-- maybe we can talk with them again!

[And she's off again, before anyone can object or stop her or tell her she's not invited.

When they all arrive at the actual event, though, it's... kind of like how Misty always was at events when she was alive. She's just kind of hovering to the side, watching. Super creepy. But hey. It's a party? Probably.]

[rosewitch]

[It's . . . not the least party-like environment they've been in recently? This is exactly as much credit as Misty gets. No more.]

[If she's honest, Anthy goes to the picnic meeting half because she's worried Misty is going to do something truly heinous. She doesn't know what, but that doesn't make her less concerned. The other half of the reason is that she's extremely fucking sad and wants to see everyone in the same place, but nobody has to know that. That she sits down next to Hawke and Varric and Chu-chu means nothing and should not be read into. That she brightens slightly when Thomasin says her name also means nothing and should not be read into.]

Good. They're sharing. [Squinting, she leans forward.] Maria Fairweather and . . . Louise Monroe. Is Maria the witch?

[thatsplato]

[Misty is up to something truly heinous-- beaming while she listens to Mariko's dream--]

A beautiful girl with big blonde curls, like a doll....

[rosewitch]

Not you, then.

1/2

[thatsplato]

[sweetsynergy]

Holy shit.

2/2

[thatsplato]

[Rude.

But also? Nothing she hasn't heard before. She reminds herself what a great philosopher once said, and--]

Maybe like yours.

[rosewitch]

. . . my what.

[misty girl what even]

[protomartyr]

[ nice. ]

[rosewitch]

[this approval means everything]

[sweetsynergy]

[Vanity is here. She spends a few fruitless moments trying to swat away the shadowy figure clinging to Hawke before actually focusing on the meeting itself.]

[This exchange gets a bit of an annoyed huff, because REALLY, you two. Harold-]

...Did anyone else have more of those weird dreams before they died?

[thatsplato]

You had weird dreams too?

[sweetsynergy]

[Vanity opens her mouth. Closes it. Recalls when the dreams started, specifically in relation to Misty's fun little body scavenger hunt.]

[And, with the air of someone who knows this is going to lead to nothing but regret-]

What dreams did you have here.

[thatsplato]

I had one where Caligula could talk, in full conversations.

[sweetsynergy]

Caligula.

[rosewitch]

I had another dream after you died.

[sweetsynergy]

Sounds like a lot of people did.

[Like holy shit Hawke.]

Did yours involve magic swordfights too?

[rosewitch]

Why would I tell you that?

[ergine]

It sounds like Thomasin and I had the same dream. [ Regarding running away with another girl, she means. ] Oh—and another one where I was me... Though, it was the aftermath that felt truly unpleasant.

[sweetsynergy]

["Yes, I'm sure the aftermath of being you WOULD be unpleasant-" ...is a response that doesn't quite make it to her lips. This is perhaps progress? Or the bare minimum.]

Your life, but not your life, right?

[ergine]

[ probably for the best, seeing as Kohaku is no longer making an effort and would just be like "yeah :)" to make Vanity uncomfortable ]

Yes. Hisui-chan was the same, but everything around the two of us was different.

Still, that isn't the point that really disturbed me. After I woke up... It felt like something was crawling around inside me. Like there was something burrowing under my skin.

[protomartyr]

I only had a dream about fire. Not...another version of me.

cw: parental death

[sweetsynergy]

We all had the fire dream.

[Except for Sayo, Kanon, and Misty, for obvious reasons.]

The week after, though-

[Sigh.]

For me it was. My father. The night- things ended. Except it kept changing between what actually happened, and the two of us- it was similar, but we were in space, I think?

[protomartyr]

[ Drily: ]

That's nice. I was dead.

[ Come on Lottie lock the fuck in ]

Was your father any different? Besides being in space, I guess.

[thatsplato]

I didn’t—-