GRAVEYARD aka the locked basement LOL

[protoshepherd]

[ You're dead. Either you were ousted and seemed as an ally of the Bad Badger, or the actual allies of the Bad Badger actually got to you.

You remember dying. If you were already dead prior to this whole game... well, you're alive again.

Your death may have been terrible. Poison, being stabbed multiple times, blunt trauma to the head, hanged... whatever. You can still feel the pain.

But... Where are you? You see white walls around you. You're in a hospital...? You're in a room, but there's no one else but you and a man in a blue costume. He doesn't want to reveal his real head, so he hides behind a mask. A badger wearing a blue jester's hat.

And... another person? Has that other person been there all along?

Then you remember being in a mansion. Was that all a dream? You try to figure it out on your own, but you can't seem to come up with an answer. If by any chance you look into the badger's empty black eyes, you might feel like you're being taken to a completely different place. It's as if you can see the mansion again. You can see the people talking, but if you try to call out, nothing happens. They can't hear you.

You avert your gaze from the badger, and those images disappear.

There's so much happening. Pain, and this crazy badger.

You, on the other hand, aren't wearing a blue costume. You have a white dress on, with an opening at the back. That was definitely not what you were wearing... or was it?

You have so many questions. But at least you're not alone. Someone can answer those questions for you. ]

--

[ NOTE Your characters will be able to see the events happening in the game while in the graveyard as long as they're looking at the Proto Badger. They cannot participate in any of the polls, or try to converse with anybody that isn't in this room. ]

Comments

[dekillerqueen]

[Wow, Simon. You really need an assassin to teach you about ~trust~.]

Speaking of which... What are the running theories regarding our predicament?

[murimurimuri]

Scuttlebutt thinks ghosts. I'm leaning brainwashing. We don't have anything that can explain everything.

[dekillerqueen]

... Frankly, both of those theories seem equally outlandish to me... but they may be preferable to death, I suppose.

[Or mass hallucination. He's not going to mention that, though.]

[murimurimuri]

We're no more dead than anyone else. I know that because Engarde and I killed Team Gavin last night.

[dekillerqueen]

You... What? How? Why? [SO MANY QUESTIONS]

[murimurimuri]

The badger called us out of the room, and we were overtaken by a bizarre compulsion to murder them in a very specific way. Scuttlebutt claims she was affected as well to pass out and not notice us leaving, but honestly I think she just fell asleep.

[dekillerqueen]

A... bizarre compulsion, you say...

... Could there truly be supernatural phenomena at work?

[murimurimuri]

That would be one way to explain the timeline inconsistencies and the seeming ability to bring people back from the dead.

[Sounding like he doesn't really buy it's the correct way, though.]

[dekillerqueen]

[Oh, yeah, the timeline thing. Sure, even with that explained, he gets the feeling Trucy's a bit too old to be Phoenix's daughter, but... actually, that's the last thing on his mind right now.]

And what is your theory, then? This... brainwashing hypothesis?

[murimurimuri]

Look at us. Look at this place. The implications are hardly subtle.

[dekillerqueen]

[What if he doesn't WANT to think about the implications...? Shellu sighs.]

I can't say I find it much more likely than something supernatural, to be frank.

[murimurimuri]

Either way, we're playing by rules we don't understand.

[dekillerqueen]

... Speaking of rules... Something else has been on my mind.

[murimurimuri]

Oh? What's that?

[cardboard_journalism]

Kaaaaaaaaaahk.

My theory on ghosts has... evolved, a bit. Kahk-kahk-kahk.

[murimurimuri]

You really are a one-woman tabloid. Well?

[cardboard_journalism]

Sss, sss, sss! I'll take that as a compliment.

Well, what if he's strictly speaking not a ghost? He keeps talking about being in a room with 'white walls' and getting 'injections'. He could have survived, technically... as some sort of psychic burn victim. Trapped in a mental prison that he's lured us into. Kept alive only by a nurse.

You know, like in that horror movie.

[murimurimuri]

You're getting more ridiculous by the minute. Can't you at least write your own fiction?

[cardboard_journalism]

I want to hear your version then!

You got a brainwash drug that can give every person the exact same experience? Or are we hooked into some sort of machine that shows us all the same setting? Like you know, that old suspense movie. With the bullet-dodging effects.

[murimurimuri]

We don't need to have the same experience, only one we mutually agree on. And not all of us have the chance to go see every movie that comes out, okay?

Of course, it's also possible that I'm the only one who's real.

[cardboard_journalism]

...there's no plausible version where this is all reality-TV, is there?

A-Anyway! Like I said, there's definitely a mental compulsion here.

[murimurimuri]

We can all agree on that part. The possibility exists that we're all in a suggestible state, just not to one another.

[cardboard_journalism]

And you guys didn't go out to kill Mr. Doe...

...or did you?

[murimurimuri]

No way! We wouldn't stand a chance against that guy.

[cardboard_journalism]

...Oh. Kahk-kahk...

My theory was maybe you got skipped because you'd be more prepared to make a run for it this time...