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the graveyard
You wake up in your bed. At first, it might not seem as though anything has changed...until you try to leave the room. You'll quickly discover that while you can phase through the interior walls of the building, you can't open doors, pick up objects, or alter the environment in any way. Worse, the only people who can see and hear you are your fellow ghosts; to everyone else, you may as well be so much empty air.
That said, there are still a few other things you can do besides just observing those who are still alive. You now have the ability to conjure any food, drink, or reasonably small object out of midair, although anything you conjure will go unnoticed by the living inhabitants. More interestingly, there is now an intricate iron door embedded in the wall of the main room that you're sure hadn't been there yesterday. If you open it, you'll find that at long last you've exited the building...and the world outside looks quite familiar.
In fact, it's your world. Though...it might not be exactly how you remember it when you left.
You won't be able to get far in the area before you feel some kind of barrier preventing you from taking another step, but it's enough for you to know that something has Gone Terribly Wrong. Perhaps it's the bombed-out shell of your building, or the monsters screeching nearby, or the corpses of your army scattered on the ground; whatever the situation is, it's clear that you would have been in grave danger had you still been back home. Luckily, your ghostly status is still in effect even here; while there may be danger still lurking about, none of it will be able to affect you.
The building behind you has taken on a translucent, almost insubstantial appearance; only the iron doors remain as solid as ever. You can simply open them again to return to the cat's domain.
(OOC: Here's how this will work! Whenever someone new arrives to the graveyard, the world outside will change to their canon's world. We'll leave the exact location and situation up to you to describe; the only thing that matters is that it should be clear your character would have been in enormous danger had they been around. Everyone in the graveyard will be able to explore the area, which will at maximum be around the size of a large ballroom; you'll be able to see things outside the area, but you won't be able to take another step forward. You can interact with the setting, but you won't be able to affect anything living, and anything that might pose a danger such as bullets will pass right through you.)
no subject
Thank-you very much.
[It takes her a moment to try and figure out how to drink it but after taking a sip Youmu seems quite surprised by it]
It's very rich, but somehow I was expecting it to be sweeter. Do you drink this a lot in your home?
no subject
You're welcome.
Ja. I have a strong appreciation for good coffee. It's quite central to my culture.
no subject
[Ever since she mentioned home Youmu just felt worse and worse. It was something she definitely had to tell Austria about but she wasn't sure how she would take it]
Listen, I'm really sorry about everything you've been through and I don't mean to make things worse but there's something I need to tell you.
Your home might not be there anymore...
no subject
That didn't exactly pan out.]
What would you know of that though? [She hadn't mentioned those things to anyone publicly.]
no subject
[Mostly because she hadn't seen it for herself at the time, having spent the first few days of her death trying to get through to Yuyuko. Since then she's been wondering if she should have gone back to tell the others]
There's a door in the main room, when I went through it I suddenly realised why we're still trapped here, why we hadn't passed onto the afterlife as usual. Every time someone died the door went to somewhere new, I suspect you might see your home if you were to look through...
1/3
[Austria will calmly set her cup down and get up.]
If you'll excuse me for just a moment, Frau Konpaku?
2/3
Being able to suddenly pass through obstacles is only mildly startling really.] ...!!
3/3
[Austria grabs at the handle, taking a moment to try to straighten herself up before opening the door. Given how Austria doesn't run very quickly to begin with, Youmu's had plenty of time to catch up with her if she'd like.]
no subject
[Youmu hurried after her, afraid that she might have misinterpreted. There was a door, yes and she could see her home as well but the point of telling her was to give her warning. She quickly arrived before Austria had a chance to see what was beyond]
I have to warn you before you go through, what you see might alarm you. I don't know where it came from or why the living can't see it but I believe Sir Meowington wasn't lying when he said we willingly paid a price to come here...
no subject
Regardless, it's my responsibility to know what is going on at home. So if this will show me then it's necessary I look.
You are welcome to join me if you'd like, but I will not be deterred.
no subject
[Youmu will follow her in, curious to see if the state of Austria's world is any different to hers]
no subject
There's small traces of life. She knows her country has not been abandoned, but there's an deniable emptiness she can sense that someone else might not recognize. Her industry has become practically non-existent. Her influence on the world has dwindled to nothing. Her people have grown weak and aged, with no one to inherit her lands or to pass on their culture.
Her country is dying. A slow, gentle death...
She is dying.]
This... can't be.
no subject
You're a little like me, aren't you? Part of your soul exists outside of your body...
This is it, isn't it?
[Youmu couldn't claim to completely understand the concept of national personifications but she tried to make sense of the situation in simple terms. Anxiously she glanced over]
Are you alright, Miss Austria?
no subject
They are it. I exist for them.
Without them, there is no need for me.
no subject
I wonder why this is happening. It seems strange for so many worlds to be in peril like this...
no subject
...What happened to your world?
[Austria reaches out to the woman, but her hands slip straight through.]
...
no subject
[Youmu stays quiet as she thinks back to what she saw that day]
You remember the tree in my memories, right? The one that Lady Yuyuko and I were trying to force to bloom?
The seal broke, there were so many bodies...
[Taking a deep breath she tries not to tear up. It felt like everything she had worked so hard towards had crumbled in her hands and her death had been in vain. She couldn't even talk to the person she'd worked so hard to protect]
The barrier between the living world and the netherworld is weak where I come from, I wonder how many people it's dragged in...
no subject
...
[There can be no other explanation. They had to leave their homes to avoid danger and they offered up what was precious to them as payment.]
It seems rather cruel doesn't it? Obtaining refuge only to die regardless, while our homes suffer.
no subject
[With a deep breath she rubs at her eyes. No point in crying now, she's had the time to sort out her feelings but her feelings are pretty clear]
Those spirits... If I was still in the living world I would have slashed up every last one of them.
no subject
When I lied, it wasn't my intention to make you die for me. [She'd voted no one. She'd tried to convince Youmu that she should do the same, without giving herself away.]
If I'd known... that it would have been pointless. That I would have disappeared regardless and been taken over by that thing...
[Would she have given up? That's not like her. They weren't concerned with saving anyone at the time, just themselves because of what that damn cat had led them to believe.
She'd been doomed from the start, her people had been doomed as well and Youmu had died for nothing and it made her bitter and angry.]
... I didn't know what to do.
no subject
[Her hands balled into fists and for the first time since she'd died Youmu was angry at someone other than herself.
But what good was that? What was she going to do? Hurt her? Kill her? She had already been hurt enough, they all had. Her fists uncurled and her shoulders dropped]
You could have said something... Those shadows don't have to consume you, Mr. Gavin proved that.
What did you think would happen if you stayed quiet? That everything would work out fine if someone else died for your guilt?
1/2
[Once she realized, she carefully manipulated the entire situation. The confusion, misleading others, refusing to confess to her identity, manipulating Iceland's anger and desire to protect Norway, pushing her cabinet to the last moment-- Youmu's personality had been lucky, but once it was revealed she manipulated that too to save herself.]
2/3
Don't you dare speak to me like I had any choice. Was I supposed to allow myself to die for strangers, when I had a home that relied on me?
No one was going to be saved that day. They might have spared you out of their own ineptitude of figuring out who the culprit was had you not been so noble as to insist everyone vote for you. But don't stand there and regale me with how Herr Gavin was spared. No one was thinking like that during our case!
They had no intentions of saving you! They had no intentions of saving me! What did I do to deserve to come here to this vapid blank waste of space and die for something that happened centuries ago?
What was I going to do dead? I thought if I were alive I could do something-- Figure out something! [That's why she'd started talking to Iceland wasn't it? Tried to work through her guilt? Tried to stop the thing that was possessing her?
But once it became too late... he had no choice but...] A-and all it did was... was get me killed in the end!
3/3
I had people who needed me.
I didn't want to die. I didn't want to be possessed. I wanted time... I needed time. There had to have been a way to save me...
Why? Why? W...why couldn't someone... save me?
1/2
How could they save you if they didn't know you needed to be saved.
It was your choice to suffer in silence and I'm sorry that things turned out the way they did. I didn't want anyone else to die, that's the only reason I put myself forward. We both payed for the decisions we made, but they were decisions we made!
We always had a choice, and you don't get to absolve responsibility from yourself because yours didn't turn out the way you wanted. If you were unaware at the time it would have been a different matter but...
2/2
(no subject)