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

[telecosmetic]

[She stares up at him.] ...yeah. Does that mean Beatrice and Proto Man are here too?

[icanhearscreams]

Yeah. There’s a bunch of us here from a previous round of murders, too.

[telecosmetic]

[She looks horrified, getting closer to see if he's dissolving or becoming staticky in form right now.] Were-were you on another train? How long ago was this?

[icanhearscreams]

[Nope, just here.]

No. Not another train. A mansion.

[telecosmetic]

Oh...was it also under the command of someone called the Empress?

[icanhearscreams]

Nope. Two stewards, who were trying to bring back their 'big sis'.

[telecosmetic]

...huh. That sounds really different from what we went through. Wonder why we're all here together then... [She finally sits up, brushing herself off slowly.] Oh, right. I'm Eliza. Eliza Owens.

[icanhearscreams]

No idea. Maybe every time one of these things happens, it makes a different afterlife island? Our island started to get attacked by things that reached down from the sky, so we had to escape.

[telecosmetic]

Oh, huh...what did they look like? Maybe they're related to one of the places our train stopped at...

[icanhearscreams]

Big fuzzy black hands and snakelike tendrils descending from tears in the sky.

[telecosmetic]

Hmm...did you see any weird symbols in the sky before that happened?

[icanhearscreams]

I don't think so. Why?

[telecosmetic]

Hm. Probably not a Witch barrier, then... [She tilts her head back to look up at the sky, as if worried it might split open again.]

[icanhearscreams]

There's a few witches here, maybe you can ask them? I don't know anything about magic stuff...

[telecosmetic]

Oh, not that kind of witch. A Witch. [Can't you hear the capital letters, Jun?] They're more like...monsters, I guess, that appear after a soul gem breaks.

[icanhearscreams]

[No. No, he cannot.]

I don't know what a soul gem is, either.

[telecosmetic]

It's meant to be a power source for a particular kind of magical girl who makes a contract with a species called Incubators. If I had my old powers, I could show you. But...the soul gem is also their life force, at the same time. It gets darker when they use their magic, or feel negative emotions, and the only way to clean it is to fight more Witches and get Grief Seeds from them... [She frowns.] It's a horrible cycle.

[icanhearscreams]

... Huh. No idea. Magic doesn’t exist in my world at all.

[telecosmetic]

Yeah, I've met a few people like that. Well, anyways...I guess it's possible that was a Witch chasing after you guys, but there's so much other stuff it could be, and they were only at one stop on the train so I'm not sure there's much connection there...

[icanhearscreams]

We only had the one location... I guess the survivors got to go outside eventually, but we could only watch them by sticking our heads in a windstorm.

[telecosmetic]

But you could see them? [Eliza sounds much more focused now.] Have-have you found anything like that here?

[icanhearscreams]

No, not yet. We're keeping an eye out, though.

[telecosmetic]

Yeah...let me know if you find anything like that.