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

let's all be sad about trial five

[sweetsynergy]

[Vanity misses coffee. She is so goddamn tired after this week, trying to haunt people (Hawke) freaking out over people getting punished and strung up like a shitty Peter Pan (also Hawke), worrying someone was going to trust that the headmistress would hold her implied word to not double-murder them (you get it by now...). But despite the ghost exhaustion she's ghost dragged herself down to the non-ghost trial to ghost watch it.]

[She looks around the dwindling circle, sucking in a sharp breath as she does a headcount.]

Oh, this one's gonna get bad.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[ Rinne starts slightly when she realizes who is missing. ]

...Damn it, Satsuki-san...

[sweetsynergy]

[haha, oh, yeah, things could get real interesting in the pool once she shows up]

[maybe they (vanity) will be able to laugh about that later]

[not now though, now everything is terrible]

...she's gonna blame herself for this too, isn't she.

[bellpepperexercise]

[Kana stares blankly for what feels like forever trying to find someone that’s missing. There’s no way that she missed that specifically, though, because who she’s looking for is too tall to blend into the crowd.]

Satsuki.

No, no, no, oh god no…

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[ Rinne does not hesitate this time. She takes Kana's hand. ]

Kana-chan... I'm sorry.

[rosewitch]

[The trial hasn't been going for long before this funny look starts to come over Anthy's face. Disbelief, anger, frustration, a tiny glimmer of hope along with disgust. It's an odd mixture.]

[Under her breath:] Satsuki, I'd better be wrong.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

...What are you thinking, Anthy-san?

[bellpepperexercise]

No…that’s gotta be what who killed her wants them to think. Like using somebody’s private letters to confuse how involved she really was.

[Kana is still mad about that, VANITY.]

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[ Rinne's sharp eyes catch Isabella leaving. ]

...Oh? Where...?

investigation kind of??

[rosewitch]

Her highest priority is always her children.

[Which means her life is secondary, surely. Anthy is going to be keeping a keen eye on the trial room for anything that changes.]

Hatsune did something, I think [I hope], that will produce . . . irregular results. [. . .] Or maybe she's going to get more coffee cake. [BUT LIKE HOPEFULLY THE OTHER THING?]

[sweetsynergy]

[And now this is happening.]

What are you planning-

[ergine]

[ and then, an outburst— ]

Hatsune, for goodness' sake!

[bellpepperexercise]

What…what is this?

Hatsune, Satsuki…did you both…

What the hell?

[facultwist]

[ Anthy's trying to get a message across to Hawke. It's a noble effort.

But she'll find just as the pen is about to touch the paper...it stops.

Her whole hand stops. She can't push it forward. It's like an oppressive force is holding her back, and it will not let go. ]

[rosewitch]

[wh]

[Okay. Okay, this is — this is something. Everything is an opportunity for information. She's going to look around and see if there's anything around her that's changed or anything on her arm or hand that looks different. She's not going to panic.]

[bellpepperexercise]

[Then Satsuki re-enters the building and...Kana crumbles her beret and throws it on the floor.]

I was right?! I'm gonna kick her ass!!

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

...I feel...weirdly proud of her.

[trustheart]

[ Chris has been quiet up until now.

But then this happens. ]

FUCK YES!

[rosewitch]

[Anthy doesn't even have words, she just scrunches up her fists and dances in place on her tiptoes. It's adorable, to be honest.]

[sweetsynergy]

Goddammit. You go, girls.

[banishedfromparadise]

Good girl, Satsuki... well done.

[She's smiling so proudly? Good thing Mariko can't see or she might get jealous.]

Of course, it remains to be seen what will happen next.

investigation 2: electric boogaloo

[rosewitch]

[Well. Time for some Severance board-esque behaviors. How's the trial room looking now?]

[facultwist]

[ The shadows in the room are starting to lengthen. Not the ones piggybacking on your friends, thank goodness. But all of the natural ones, they're getting longer. Bigger. ]

[bellpepperexercise]

The witch. What...what's gonna happen to her?

[To Hatsune, mainly. But also...the Interim Headmistress.]

The Headmistress is...if she's our age, who is she really?

[facultwist]

[ The execution happens, and you see her. The witch—eight foot tall, no face, hooded—rises in the room. She's powerful and furious and somehow feels everywhere.

Chains wrap around everything in the trial room, though mercifully not around all of you. They're the same chains that Anthy saw holding Hawke up, rusty but strong.

You should probably get out of here. ]