A Reckoning...

[strangerpeople]

[You are dead.

Where you awaken is not of your cabin on the train but rather firm earth, the skies above you being nothing but an inky blackness as for as you can see. And yet throughout the darkness, you are surrounded by soft lighting and peculiar music playing all around you. When your senses become less muddled, you will notice that the music playing is upbeat and joyful almost. But let's face it, you are probably thinking this is some sort of creepy hell that you got yourself into after biting the bullet.

It all depends if you find circuses to be such a place because that is where you find yourself. The setting feels more antique than what you may assume a circus to look like, more Victorian themed than what one can be called. First the sound picks up and then you can smell something delectable in the air, catching popped corn and fried sweets and maybe something to drink? It's more than likely here.

Going down the main way, you can see some classic carnival games such as skee ball, ring toss, balloon popping if you are inclined to try and take your mind of the fact that you didn't have a choice in coming here. But despite the joyous air of the circus, there are not many people here that can help you out...or are there?


Lost souls just like yourself who met with the same horrible fate...perhaps an accord can be struck. After all, it looks like you will be here for awhile.]


((OOC: Map for reference.))

Comments

[awitchdidit]

[And that's going to be all the warning Franciscus gets before she grabs him by the shoulder, spins him around, and throws a right hook worthy of a demoniacal boxing match between man and goat at his face.]

Bastard!

[silvertongueheir]

Do I- [And that's all he manages to get out before her fist hits him in the face, sending him crashing to the ground with a surprised yell, rubbing his cheek. Beatrice might notice his eyes are gray instead of blue, or the lack of the One-Winged Eagle on his suit collar here.]

What-what exactly was that about? [This rates quite high on his list of "inexplicable things that have happened to me."]

1/2

[awitchdidit]

I killed a robot for you, you incompetent moooooroooon! I got turned into glass! And you couldn't stay alive for another five minutes after--

[awitchdidit]

[Beatrice blinks, and stops seeing red long enough to actually look at the guy she just decked.]

Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I had you confused with someone else.

[She offers him a hand up.]

[silvertongueheir]

[Um. Well. He'll take that hand, then. Though he's still very confused. But...killed a robot for the man he was mistaken for? Turned to glass?]

Were you also trapped in some unescapable place, and given motives to kill?

[awitchdidit]

[She scrutinizes his face a little harder once he's up. Yes...definitely the wrong eyes. And possibly a little too short? She's confident she'd recognize Battler through any disguise, but there were enough small differences to add up to a totally different person, now that she looked closer.]

I gather that that's endemic to this universe. I went from a plane to a train, but it was the same story on both, yes.

[silvertongueheir]

[A plane...? That seems like an odd coincidence.]

We were in a mansion, ourselves...but a plane, you say? Were there any snakes on it?

[awitchdidit]

An incredibly unlikely number of them, in fact! Have any other survivors from that flight come by, then?

[She looks around.]

Or...non-survivors, I suppose?

[silvertongueheir]

I don't believe so, no. Those of us who died in the mansion woke up on a snow-covered island, where a plane full of dead snakes had crashed. Though I'm afraid I can't show you the actual location for better comparison, since that place was devoured by shadow and we were forced to flee. [A pause] Though there was one of us, Eddie Kim, whose profile mentioned he enjoyed putting snakes on planes.

There are a few of us here who aren't from that mansion now, though. A...person dressed like a clown, who apparently was living here before we arrived. And two people who can apparently travel between universes, but weren't able to see what was happening in here until they entered themselves.

[awitchdidit]

Ugh. Eddie. That son of a bitch was responsible for the peculiar combination of serpents and aircraft, yes. He died for failing to live up to his end of some sort of supernatural bargain. I'm glad to see he's still in murder shenanigans hell, I suppose.

...but two interdimensional travelers, you say? They're not both little girls with poor attitudes, are they?

[silvertongueheir]

Well, I believe he was alive in the mansion-though the Stewards ended up putting a bounty on his head for breaking a rule against harming spiders. And he was eaten by a monster of some sort last week. One that he apparently lured here. [Franciscus does not sound very broken-up about this at all.]

They're not. At least, not little girls. [Yotsuyu's attitude probably does count as "poor," after all.]

[awitchdidit]

As is likely notable by the fact that we're talking right now, "alive" and "dead" are more like game states than permanent departures. Hopefully Eddie stays wherever it is he's got off to now, though. I've never met a man who did a more thorough job of causing all his own problems, and if you were Battler, you'd know that's saying something coming from me.

Come to think of it, I don't know who you really are, not have I introduced myself. I am Beatrice.

[silvertongueheir]

Battler's an important person of yours, then? [Seeing as how he was apparently connected to her motive.] I suppose that's true, what you say about the living and the dead...one of the people who was with us on that island had come from the future, and it seems that somehow it was changed enough that she was able to return. [Time travel is confusing.] And...those in the mansion were able to summon us back temporarily, at least long enough to talk for a while.

I'm Franciscus. [He rubs his cheek a bit more.]

[awitchdidit]

Important enough for me to owe him an affectionate beating. It's nice to meet you, Franciscus, and I don't just say that because it means he might still be alive.

[She thinks for a second.]

So necromancy is possible, you mean? In the traditional sense of the dead communicating with the living?

[silvertongueheir]

[It's not like he can judge her love life, considering what's happened between him and Osomatsu before the two of them got together.]

It is. Though that hasn't happened since...Maka-the girl from the future-disappeared. I hope that means the living escaped from wherever they were, since I believe that procedure required materials only found there.

[awitchdidit]

[Beatrice nods.]

If the living escaped that scenario...

[She ponders what that would mean for a second.]

...you all might be stuck here, outside of fond memories. How long does it feel like it's been since your time traveler friend left?

[silvertongueheir]

A couple of months, perhaps? It's hard to keep track of time here, I must admit. [He sighs.] I'm assuming no one else on that train was also on the plane with you? [What's the connection, here?]

[awitchdidit]

No...hm. It's possible they escaped and I was kept in some sort of "cycle". Or it was just determined I needed more vacation. No one except Eddie was dead by the end of the plane trip, so that could account for it...

[silvertongueheir]

Really? That group managed to avoid killing each other, then?

[awitchdidit]

Our "victim" was resurrected. Or...the demon was. I'm not sure if the dog recovered. I was a little distracted by the plane crashing at that point.

[silvertongueheir]

...a dog? [He blinks a little, looking confused.] You had a dog among you...and someone killed it? [Who would do such a horrible thing?]

[awitchdidit]

The boy was very regretful, as I recall.

[silvertongueheir]

[A pause.] You mentioned multiple victims...so did one person kill both of them, or were those two separate incidents?