witheredblum | sinking down, down

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?

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[ Rinne's sharp eyes catch Isabella leaving. ]

...Oh? Where...?

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?]

Edited 2025-05-17 21:21 (UTC)

[ As far as Anthy can tell, nothing about the trial room changes when Isabella leaves. Should that change, we'll let you know. :) ]

...If Hatsune poisoned Satsuki but then Satsuki- wounded herself that badly- who counts as the culprit? Which was actually the cause of death?

[No clear winner means an unsolvable case, right?]

[...don't say "clever girl," don't say "clever girl"-]

Depending on the specifics, it could certainly be an unsolvable case.

[GLEAMY GLINTY EYES.]

Flipping the board- ...no, changing the rules.

[Let's be fair, the gas bomb was trying to flip the board, this is exploiting a speedrun mechanic or something.]

[Vanity thinks for a second.]

...the witch is gonna be PISSED, we need to be ready to fight or run.

Run. How would we fight?

She's strong, but we have numbers. We could have a shot.

[GHOSTS TOGETHER STRONG but probably not]

At what? Drawing a not-very-detailed picture?

[LIKE. SHE TRULY HAS NO IDEA]

You heard the interim headmistress, right? Ghosts can kill other ghosts.

[let's make murder the solution, just once]

[

hm]

[she's going to see what happens if she tries to strangle vanity a little. just a little! just see what happens if she presses down on her windpipe with both hands for a few seconds. does this do anything.]

HHH-

[what the fuck WHAT THE FUCK-]

[They. Probably don't need to breath? But instincts are instincts, she's trying to shove Anthy's hands apart and kind of. Aiming a kick or knee to push her away.]

[She backs up and lets go! No need to kick, jeez.]

Did that feel dangerous to you? Like you might die if your air was cut off?

[NORMAL]

You were crushing my throat, YES it felt dangerous!

[But- it takes a second or two to process, but she's not actually that out of breath. None of the relief that comes of surfacing after a long time underwater, say.]

...but not fatal, shit.

Edited 2025-05-17 21:59 (UTC)

[Well, crap. Anthy frowns, tapping her chin.]

I'm not sure what our methods could be, then. I assume we can rule out any nonsense about religious icons or prayer. What would harm her?

[Hatsune keeps talking about being the seventh bullet in the gun. Weaponizing herself. The gun is a weapon that the Interim Headmistress is holding. This is nothing. Is this something?]

What exactly happened when you saw her before?

[ugh, reminders of her failure]

Whatever it was was fast, I ended up out in the quad. And then Misty was screaming at me again.

[One of these things was objectively worse, she thinks.]

I was thinking one person could act as a distraction while everyone else actually attacked, but if that's not an option...

Ugh. If that's not an option and the worst happens- fine, maybe we can at least buy THEM a few seconds.

[That "we" sounds a bit like an "I", somehow.]

Edited 2025-05-17 22:08 (UTC)

[That seems like a bit of an abrupt conclusion, but also sort of inevitable. Hawke would be upset, is the thing.]

[But Hawke is already upset.]

So . . . try to fight. Either she kicks us out anyway, or we succeed and "survive," or we succeed and die.

This is all basically borrowed time. And there's still people actually alive I give a shit about.

[Also apparently the other option is Rinne actively tormenting her for eternity or something, might as well try something useful before going to Hell.]

. . . All right. I'm in.

[It's a stupid plan. It's barely a plan. But Vanity's right. They have to try.]

[Look the last time she actually tried planning it ended up with a bunch of wasted acid and a corpse getting set on fire, maybe being dumb will work out better.]

I'll go left, you go right.

[She is taking off her ghost jacket and ghost folding it before setting it on a desk.]

[ghost desk— wait no real desk]

[she hesitates for exactly long enough to give hatsune a completely ineffective hug before stancing the fuck up.]

[ Fortunately uh. While yes, this does keep Vanity from breathing... Vanity is a ghost, and no longer needs to breathe. Not fun, but not fatal! Homer Simpson ass experience. ]

[ this is her favorite show ]

sinking down, down

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investigation kind of??

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cw: suicide and also being kind of an asshole about it

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2/2 cw slight choking im sorry

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cw: mild thalassophobia mention

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2/2 cw: implied suicidal ideation

cw suicidal ideation

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