R5: ghost hangout

[foundationmods]

[What's this? The fog of the miasma has pulled back, revealing a path down to the basement. None of the living seem to notice it though, only those who are dead are aware of it.

Down in the basement is a large furnished room. It doesn't seem as dusty as the rest of the house, and it actually seems lived in? Or...un-lived in, technically. But the lighting here works and there's plenty to do. Even if the ghosts might not need it, there's several beanbag chairs (brought in by one of the many groups of teenagers who have disappeared into the house), a large couch, and even a jacuzzi. Because even if you're in eternal pain, you can relax a bit, right?

If the ghosts look up, they'll see that the ceiling appears to be made of spider-patterned stained glass. Which is weird, considering that it should be floorboards and such. But the stained glass allows them to look up into all parts of the house and easily spy on the living. What they hear can be hit or miss, especially if the living are whispering, but seeing what they're up to should be easy enough.

Well. Might as well make the most of this space, right?]

Comments

week 3 - thursday

[tangentlion]

[yay jacuzzi. The warm bubbling water around him almost soothes away some of the pain. Almost. This place kind of reminds him of the Dead God's Pad, a bit.

Sho is apparently asleep while the stupid nonsense upstairs is going on, with a hot towel over his eyes and just manspreading like no one's business in the hot tub. Thankfully, with boxers on.

The moment he senses one of his compatriots in the space, though, he speaks up, lifting the towel from one eye and peeking out]

So.

When are we going to tell them I can hear their sorry excuse for telepathy as clear as a bell?

[carbide]

[Olympia takes the opportunity to flop on one of the beanbag chairs. This does nothing for her, actually. Things she hasn't gained from being dead: the ability to feel comfortable.]

It will have to be relatively soon, while they still believe it to be working. They caught on to the fact that those who die remember their secrets disappointingly quickly.

[hitscans]

Ha ha, let them have their fun for now. They'll realize it soon enough, I think.

[ jack, meanwhile, is sitting on the couch ]

[carbide]

He learns quickly.

[tangentlion]

It's real cute that they think that shark-faced ninja will do what he says he will.

Week 4 - early monday morning

[dreamdispersal]

[ He's awake again. He's awake again and he's not quite himself and his body hurts in every possible location a body could hurt. He didn't think it was possible for a hardened fighter like him to experience this much pain, but life's a bitch and death is apparently no better.

For a moment, Zabuza simply lays on the floor and takes in the agony, staring up at the strange ceiling. It would have been too easy for it all to be over, instead he has to be this and---

So does Haku. That's what makes him bolt upright after all. Haku. He doesn't know what he actually has to say to him, but... He should find him. Just to ascertain for himself what kind of state he is in.

Zabuza can be found exploring the basement though he doesn't linger too long in any one spot. He's searching.

After he and Haku had a ... chat, however, he's in the Jacuzzi because that is what he deserves right now, fuck it all. ]

exploring;

[tangentlion]

[There's a card table down here, probably from college kid beer pong. Sho is using it to make elaborate card houses. Out of the corner of his eye, he watches Zabuza]

Looking for something?

[dreamshielder]

[Zabuza will find Haku sitting on a bean bag chair staring up at the ceiling. If he's paying attention, he'll observe that Haku seems to be looking very specifically at the little shrine that Room 2 have apparently put up for him, a faint smile curling his lips. Then again, that may not be the most pertinent thing seeing as Haku has changed. A faint shroud of miasma surrounds him and it might almost be pretty if it weren't for the aura of misery that it induces.

He will, however, look at Zabuza when approached.]

Sit.

week 5

[dreamshielder]

[The nanosecond Haku is no longer the vessel, he's actually just going to up and leave to try and clear his head. There won't be any feedback into the hivemind here because as pissed as he is, he's not about to go broadcasting it into a psychic well.

But eventually, he'll be going through the house looking for Subete because that sure is a massive elephant in the room. Feel free to run into him wherever!]

[dreamdispersal]

[ Zabuza meanwhile is actively looking for Haku. Their conversation last week was an absolute wreck, but he's still not convinced that the real unfiltered Haku would say the same things to him as the vessel did. He's not sure what he'd do if he did, but at least he's had a week to brace himself for the possibility.

Spotting Haku, he approaches pretty casually. A week to reach that kind of zen.. and yet, it's fragile. ]

Haku.

[lightreaching]

[ She can't grab on the edge of his clothes to stop him, which would be her go-to unobtrusive attention-catcher, but she can stand in the only pathway out of this room.

At the moment, she's looking out the window, but she speaks up when she hears him walk by. ]

One moment.

[noneforall]

[Some people run and hide from elephants, and some people sit back and contemplate the element of elephant as it stands before them, and occasionally a stampede of elephants runs through the area in the background and honestly I don't know where I was going with this analogy. The point is this: Subete isn't at all hard to find.

In fact, he installs himself directly into the space as soon as he finds his way there, so he's just. Out here chilling in the jacuzzi in a lazy sprawl whenever Haku gets around to looking in the obvious places. It would probably look lazier or more relaxed if not for the subtle tension in his shoulders and down his torso, but them's the breaks when you're the cursed dead.]

Hmm. Looking for someone?

[It's hard to miss the guy questing around, but he doesn't move from his spot; there's something quiet and unvarnished to the way he kicks the elephant, so to speak.]

Week 5

[noneforall]

[Honestly, the ghost pad isn't a bad place to hang out, even if the spider aesthetic is a little much when you've spent way too much time dealing with the Spider Diaries and all manner of spider-related paraphernalia on threat of death. It loses a little of its charm amidst the chaos.

Apart from unabashedly taking advantage of the jacuzzi and probably hogging it at some points (at least he can adjust the water temperature more or less successfully if it strays?), Subete spends a good amount of time just wandering around the older parts of the mansion that are now open to them. It's not so much nostalgia as -- well, restlessness, maybe. The needs of the wandering and unfettered dead. He reads in the library sometimes, contemplating books on philosophy and the occasional novel, and the rest of the time he's squirreled away somewhere in the machine lab, either staring blankly at materials without making any effort to take advantage of them or perusing an engineering book or two he borrowed from the library.]

library

[lightreaching]

[ Hey, guess who's here. It's the maneating dragon reading a book about....fairytales, apparently.

She notices him walk in, because of course she does, she can't not notice, but she tries to bury her nose in her book and look preoccupied. ]

library

[accrowed]

[ Considering how everyone was leaning before he died, he's not too surprised when the knowledge of Subete's death rushes into his brain. Geez, the living really know how to make some bad decisions. In a way though, he's kind of benefitting from it.

Or the miasma is, whichever it even counts as anymore.

He decides not to think about the hivemind business too much and instead just approaches Subete in the library. It's a bit nostalgic being here, not that there's much to look back on. ] So this is your new haunt. You've got good taste, this is number three or four on my list of possible hangouts.

[ He probably isn't but, meh, whatever. ]

Week 5 Friday Night

[tangentlion]

[after holding vigil at Giovanni's crispy corpse for hours, Sho finally returns to the basement. Specifically, to the jacuzzi. If someone is already in there, he'll quip;]

Adjust your coordinates or I'm gonna sit on your lap.

[and he will, too!


It's getting harder and harder to differentiate his emotions and pain from that of... everyone else. But Sho is certain that this feeling of sadness, of regret, of rage... is all him. But the feelings of... completion, of something approaching happiness... no. The miasma wanted that stupid guy to join them -- Minamimoto never did. The conflicting emotions are as painful as the pain of the explosion.

He slouches in the water up to his nose and blows bubbles with his mouth]

Week 5 Trial Popcorn!

[noneforall]

[In honor of the very last trial...!

--Not that they know that, of course, but the ghost contingent is pretty wide now -- and of course, when the Vessel's away, the spiderlings(??) come out to play. Time to spread out around the jacuzzi and beanbags and whatever else and stare through our personal spyder spyglass into the bowels of trial chaos. ☆

Subete will be lounging against a wall. Back to his own wall-leaning ways because fuck it. Y'all better not be tantruming miasma all over our nice basement deathcave.]

They really are out for blood this week, hmm?

[Is he really qualified to say that.]

[tsunderine]

[shoots him a rather frustrated glare his way, but is not saying anything - she doesn't even need to, given that, well, yeah, miasma is spilling out of her with no regards for anybody else.

but it's easy for anyone to tell what she's thinking.

they better fucking get the killer because if they don't I will get my revenge somehow-

she is

seeping

in

rage.]

[tangentlion]

[Sho is in the jacuzzi, trying to relax. But all he's doing is staring, unblinking, up at the proceedings.

And also basically turning the water purple with all the miasma he's leaking but it's fine.

(has he been here all night??? pruning points to yes)]

[accrowed]

[ He'll take up a position near the couch, thanks. Jacuzzis aren't all that comfortable for sitting back and watching people for hours without pruning. ]

Sounds like they're rounding on Hikage.

A CALL.

[foundationmods]

[On sunday, there is - all at once, through every single ghost - a pulse runs through them, almost forcing them all to look towards the Center of the house.

And through their connection, a whisper:]

Come here....

[A small, tiny voice - but powerful, insistently tugging at them to follow the 'lines' that connect them to the Curse and Miasma and into the center room.

Will you follow?]

[tsunderine]

[hm.]

[yeah, she's following. as they say: curiosity killed the cat.]

backdated to idk sometime before spiderbaby

[eyeforai]

[ How are you doin' tonight deadcrew? Well your time in eternal torment is about to get a lot louder because with a bang (and disappointingly perhaps not a plop or spray of water), are two new additions to the miasma verse. This is a rude awakening as he's ever had but Hikage doesn't have time to dwell on it or all the new despair he's feeling, though at this point it's really just adding a cherry on top of a fully stacked sundae, when his surroundings come into focus. ]

Hell really is being stuck with a man like you in a jacuzzi.

[Date, on the other hand, has really had enough of all this goddamn despair and frustration for a lifetime and getting plunked into an empty jacuzzi of all things isn't helping his already abyssmal mood improve. Granted, not that there's much to improve to all things considered, but he'd still take something else over this. Anything. So as he takes in his surroundings with his halved vision, he finds his irritation raising its peak as he hears a familiar voice near him.]

And that's my line.

[And as he turns his head to look over at Hikage, an impulse just strikes him and he launches himself forward to bring his hands around the other's neck.

This is fine.

You're free to watch this unfold or catch either Hikage or Date on their own later after they've had time to reconnect!]

after their lovers' quarrel!!!

[tangentlion]

[Sho lets Date wander off by himself, following him silently and invisibly. Then he calls out;]

Hey! You.

Week 6, post-vessel announcement

[soupervillain]

[ Okay, following his extremely valiant attempt at being a cool menacing Vessel (and Battler's much more successful one), here's Giovanni in the basement, taking in the sweet, sweet digs of the dead. ] Man, you guys have a jacuzzi? I shoulda died weeks ago! ...Hey, why doesn't it have any water in it?! [ HE WANTED TO JACUZZE... Also, at the first possible opportunity, you can bet he'll be pulling Sho and Flayn into as quiet a corner as he can find. ] I feel like we have... maybe a thing, or two, we need to talk about. [ Ghost romance. Ghomance. ]

[lightreaching]

I believe because some of the others were fighting while in it.

[ as far as she knows ]

Yes, yes. In what manner are you leading this discussion?

W6 wednesday after event

[tangentlion]

[Sho, still in Noise form, drops into the basement from above and paws at his face. Since his fur is black anyway, it's hard to see the singeing, but there's a smell.]

Ow. Ow. Ow. Damn that factoring flautist and that King of the Zeroes...

[he pats out a small, still smoking flame on his shoulder, then gets to grooming. cats gonna catte]

But hey. I think we got the point across. They're going to crash into the core with flames blazing.

[soupervillain]

Whoa. You were not kidding about going furry this week. [ He's. He's kind of into it?? ] Sorry I didn't step in, but it seems like you guys had it covered. Uh... mostly. [ He holds out a cup filled with an extremely purple liquid. It bubbles slightly. ] Soup?

W6 post-spiders

[noneforall]

[This fine Wednesday, they've just completed a splendid and spiderrific mission (supposedly, if you're really into spiders, really into fire, or some unholy combination of the above) -- though the mood is far from festive, because that's not really what you do in a doomed, cursed and miasma-mired basement where you'll be spending the rest of your days. Besides, everything smells like singed fur and cobwebs.

On the bright side: the jacuzzi has been filled back up, and is giving off little curls of steam that betray a good, cozy temperature. On the not-so-bright side: Subete is hogging it, and has been throughout the entire endeavor. He is not, in fact, the only one either. In fact, he's spent most of Operation: Spider Sizzle glaring daggers at his jacuzzi companion.]

If this wasn't a mission of some kind-- [because he's loathe to call it a real mission, given that it's hard to get into a mission mindset in the middle of a bath] --I would have kicked you out long ago. You really are one of the worst at this hivemind business.

[That's probably unfair to Date, who has been doing his fair(?) share of the work here, but it's not like anything good has ever happened in this jacuzzi.

Alternatively, you can also just find him looking grouchy in the jacuzzi afterwards, muttering invectives against life, spiders and everything.]

[eyeforai]

[The only thing worse than sharing brainspace with assholes is needing to coordinate to pilot a giant miasma spider. The fact that they're in a jacuzzi while doing this probably only makes it even more absurd when described that way, but this is just their unlife now apparently. At least the water is nice.

Either way, Subete's glare is returned even after they dismiss the miasma spider.]

Yeah, well I didn't see you doing anything besides defending. How are they supposed to take this seriously if all you're doing is hiding behind cocoons all day?