witheredblum | sinking down, down

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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[ welcome, Misty and Sayo! ]

[This is how it ends. Alone. After everything she did for them -- You're a helper, Hawke had said, but she'd also rejected her. They'd all rejected her. And still, she'd fought -- The Survivalist, striving to overcome the cruel messages, pushing herself further and further until she's falling and--

Was it still worth it?

She doesn't have the time to answer that question.

Then... there's buzzing. She'd think that it was fitting, if it weren't for the fact that she didn't believe in an afterlife. Her eyes snap open, expecting a hospital bed, wires, the delicious hospital scent--- her arm is through a wall.

She screams.

Later, she's figuring things out. As long as she pays attention, she doesn't go all Kitty Pryde. She tries to stay clear of the two Sayos, that won't stop bickering with one another -- justice has been served already, but she doesn't know how receptive to that explanation they'd be. It's better to stay clear.

It's a shame. She liked the band, and their music. Now that she has an excuse to talk the ears off of one of the non-Hawke members, and she has reason to stay away. She'd probably ignore that. But -- there's detective work to be done.

Misty seeks comfort in the familiar setting of the locker rooms. She used to spend endless amounts of time in another version of these, washing soccer cleats and sometimes getting knocked into lockers. Sometimes, she'd peer into the other girls' lockers. She'd find clues about their lives, things that she could bring up in conversations later on, or find clothes that smelled like them. Sometimes she'd take things, and take them back to her room, where she could pretend she knew what it was like to be them. Now, she has a different purpose. She'll try and look in the long abandoned lockers.]

Edited 2025-04-22 19:54 (UTC)

[ The lockers are... actually, there's stuff in plenty of them? Mostly trash and half-empty bottles of old alcohol, but as for the unlocked ones, the only thing of note is a calendar, dated 1984. ]

This doesn't belong here. [She's talking to the alcohol. Which is what Alcohol normally makes people do. She'll have to take care to dispose of this later, which, feels like an extraordinary task right now, but is at least something to do.

The calendar gets her attention though. I have two questions before we get to the serious one:

What's the theme? is playboy bunnies or naked firemen?

and

What month is it set to?

But with the serious questions, Misty's also investigating to see if there's any markings on it.]

[ It's... well it was going to be normal, but now it's a swimsuit calendar because I think that's funnier.

It's set to March, for what that's worth. ]

[ Welcome Lottie, Mafuyu, and Chris. ]

[She's just going to lay here for a bit, processing the horrors.]

[ When Lottie starts falling, it feels like she's come full circle. Some part of her always knew she wasn't going to end up where Laura Lee went. That doesn't mean Lottie doesn't hang onto a small sliver of hope nonetheless, calling out a name as soon as she opens her eyes. ]

Laura Lee?

[ As soon as she sees the fluorescents, her heart sinks. Wherever Lottie is, she knows Laura Lee isn't here. And that's fair. How dare she expect that, after she gave everything to the wilderness, it would give her anything in return? It doesn't give. It's just hungry.

Eventually, she heads over to the pool, sitting cross-legged beside it and running her fingers through the water. Or, at least, trying to. Once in a while, if she focuses, she can feel flickers of something cool and wet, but for the most part, her hand just passes right through. ]

[ As soon as Lottie sees the other girl, she heads over to where Mafuyu is laying and takes a seat beside her. She's completely unlike the last time Mafuyu saw her: this Lottie is calm, and there's no blood leaking out of her skull or anywhere else.

She offers Mafuyu a tight little smile. It's not a happy expression, but at least Lottie doesn't seem mad. ]

Hi, Mafuyu.

[Mafuyu sits up quickly once she sees Lottie. Even with the lack of aggression, Mafuyu is taking this seriously.]

I am so, so sorry about what happened. I didn't mean to knock you into the altar.

It's okay.

[ Lottie says, earnestly. ]

The - [ wilderness chose, she nearly says, before remembering how badly bringing up the wilderness in front of Mafuyu went last time. ]

It's just the rules of the game. Not your fault that we're sacrifices.

[Misty puts her hands on Lottie’s faces over her eyes, careful to keep them solid.]

Try again!

[ JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, MISTY ]

Misty. [ Lottie pulls away. ] You've been here this whole time?

Not the whole time.

[She settles down next to Lottie, crossing her legs.]

I don’t think anyone’s been here before me since the 80s.

[ As the weekend moves onwards, through Sunday and Monday the water of the pool slowly begins to darken and bubble. When you look into the water, you could swear you see eyes looking back at you, dozens of them, but they blink away when you try to focus. ]

[ Lottie takes a moment to survey her new afterlife. Sure is decrepit out here, so what Misty is saying makes some sense. Still: ]

Is that just a guess? Or do you know something about this place?

[ Misty loves playing detective, after all. Maybe she's actually uncovered something useful. ]

You think I’d tell you without evidence? [Misty sounds scoffs.]

I cleaned out the locker room. You wouldn’t believe the amount of contraband and garbage I had to clear out.

Of course not.

[ Okay, so Misty's been busy. Lottie nods, somewhat impressed. ]

You've been able to touch things? How?

[Misty preens beside her, obviously pleased that she gets to be the person to educate Lottie on this.]

You just have to keep trying. As long as you focus, you can do it. [she wasted an entire week emptying lockers of alcohol. it’s a little more complex than that.]

[ Well, that's not so bad. It's just like listening to the wilderness, which was really always just an extension of the exercises her therapists used to give her.

She gives it a shot. It doesn't work. But at least she has time to practice. Speaking of which: ]

You said there hasn't been anyone here since the eighties. Do you know how they left?

[ In other words: is Lottie stuck here forever with Misty Quigley? ]

[ By Tuesday, the water in the pool is foul. Which makes it doubly upsetting when it starts to move, collecting in a giant arm covered in rippling rows of opening and closing eyes that rises up and steadies itself on the side of the pool, raising up a female humanoid head likewise made of water that screeches in a voice made up of the notes of a piano.

Uh oh. ]

[ Something is going to happen soon. Lottie can feel it - or rather, smell it. That stench is a terrible omen.

It still doesn't prepare her for what happens next, though. Lottie yelps and scrambles backwards, keeping her eye on the apparition the entire time. ]

What are you? [ And then, to anyone nearby: ] Are you seeing this?

[ Lottie isn't sure which is worse: that this is real, or that it's not real. ]

[ Hundreds of eyes swivel to look at Lottie as this... whatever it is, tries to pull itself out of the pool. It groans, and the groan is an unfamiliar song.

The apparition reaches towards Lottie. ]

[ For a moment, Lottie freezes.

Then she decides: fuck it. She is a prophet of the wilderness. She is god's favorite sacrificial lamb. She is already dead, and will never see Laura Lee again. What does she have to lose?

Lottie reaches back. ]

[and Misty? Misty who never believed in the wilderness, who believed that Lottie saw something, but Misty, Misty's far beyond that---

Misty's screaming!]

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sinking down, down

WEEK THREE

fallings not the problem; its only when i hit the ground that causes all the grief.

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WEEK FOUR

It Mafuyu

everything eats and is eaten; time is fed

cw: gore mention

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Event Leadup

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EVENT

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