mayorityvote | Your New Life

Another New Life

You wake up to the sound of surf, much, much closer than you've ever heard it unless you moseyed down to Puffin Pier back in the old days. What old days...? Why, the days when you had a body, of course. The memories are probably coming back by now, jumbled along with everything else you lost. What a wake-up call.

But at least the ocean is real, unlike your dubiously fragmented remembrances. This little island out in the middle of nowhere sports a crude sign reading ~~DUCK~~ DAMNED ISLAND that seems like it's really railing against whatever fate you've been left to. There are little seashells and sparkling fragments amongst the sand to the left of your face. If you look further, to the left and right, it seems you're not the only one who's woken up here; it's considerably less cushy than your last wakeup, but maybe that's not a bad thing.

Here, you're free, albeit... kind of incorporeal, as you'll soon find out. The island is covered in pretty little trees that don't quite form a forest, bowed over the really beautiful sandy beach that is way prettier than the one on the mainland. One, slightly rickety treehouse -- bare of anything, because incorporeal ghosts don't need furniture, of course -- peeks out from between the leaves. This is, apparently, your home away from home now.

Finally, there's a small bay-like area on the island that leads you to a strange-looking storm drain, marked with a symbol that's not-quite-an-apple. Stepping in will wash you alllllll the way back up to Puffin Pier, right where the sewers normally let out.

Oh, and once you step onto the mainland? You're now a duck. What kind of quacking afterlife is this.

((OOC: the tldr; about death is here!))

Main Nav Week Two

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["I'll say," Is what Dongrang would reply with, but he's more surprised by who's saying it.]

Beelzebub?

[He'd walked through the town with Shinobu before attempting to enact his plot in the wizard's tower, but he never saw his roomie up and about during all of that.

What else happened?]

Ah, Dongrang…

[Of course. He wouldn’t know. He must be wondering.]

…I took Shinobu’s place. They could only vote for one of us.

[His face immediately falls into a deep bitterness.]

...They sympathized with her, didn't they. Assured her that it was simply self-defense. She did what she had to do.

[Whatever. Whatever.]

Does this mean you also acted that night? Surely they didn't simply pick you as a scapegoat.

[Though he honestly wouldn't be surprised if they did.]

[It’s a new tone from Dongrang - but he can’t blame him for that shift. His killer is walked away free, after all. Regardless of what had happened beforehand.

Before answering, Beelzebub considers his words.]

…I did. I killed Bibi, and her friend Amy.

[There’s no pride in it, only dull acceptance. These are the fact, whether he likes them or not.]

...Ah.

[The chill in his tone subsides as surprise once again takes its place. Somehow, he wasn't expecting that to be the answer.

A laugh without a shred of humor escapes him.]

Haha. Wow, our humble Corpse Flower Farm has certainly lived up to its reputation of producing corpses, unintentional though it may have been.

What brought you to act?

[There’s the question. All he has is muddy answers.]

…We’d had a good night together. Bibi made dinner for us all, we talked, we laughed…I blacked out. When I came to, I’d killed them.

[A scene he’s too familiar with now.]

All my life, they’ve said I’m cursed by Satan. That anyone who gets close to me suffers terrible misfortune. [He looks down.] This…was proof those weren’t just stories.

Ahhh, and I'd lamented not getting back to the cottage in time for dinner...

[A highly inappropriate thing to muse about in response to Beelzebub's troubling predicament, but it's probably a good sign that Dongrang doesn't even know what to actually say. A curse? That's something straight out of an urban legend. And yet it was true?]

What a tragedy, though. I'm surprised they didn't take pity on you.

[If Dongrang had been there…how different would things have turned out, really? They’d probably be in the same place.]

I wouldn’t let them. I told them to vote for me.

[Still…despite that…]

Some of them didn’t, even though they’d be letting a monster walk free.

The guilt of your actions must have been absolutely crushing for you to go that far.

[He speaks in a manner that implies he can't relate. At least, not anymore. Whatever happened to that gentle demeanor Dongrang carried before?]

If I had to guess, they were willing to take that risk over bloodying their hands with the death of an innocent person who didn't intentionally or consciously kill two people.

[Shrug!]

Empty speculation, though.

[The change in Dongrang is not missed. It’s interesting enough to draw Beelzebub from his misery.]

…Perhaps.

[But, you know, enough about him.]

What did happen, then, between you and Shinobu?

[He'd ask Beelzebub why it matters, but it'd be a bit hypocritical. Beelzebub's just trying to sate his curiosity like Dongrang did.]

I targeted her based on our level of trust and the premise that I wouldn't act so suddenly after what I just went through in the first trial.

[He's sure they called him an idiot for it. But he knows for a fact that had he succeeded, they wouldn't be suspecting him so easily a second time around.]

I intended to sedate her and kill her once she couldn't fight back, but...I was too hasty. Too eager to be done with all of this.

[So calculated and methodical…to be expected of a man like Dongrang, he supposes. Though none of them had seen to what extent coming.]

So you just wanted to be rid of this place?

Can you blame me? Sure, the rapid growth of crops did fascinate me and I would have spent more time studying it, but that's the thing. I didn't have time, and my patience was worn down further by that trial.

[He denied it at the time, but Erika was aggravatingly correct. What was one death here compared to the countless lives he was saving back home? Not to mention the threat his work was under back home...]

…No, I can’t.

[Remembering what he does now, he can’t criticise Dongrang for wanting to get back to business.]

…It’s ironic. My reason for leaving has only come back to me, now it’s too late.

[Well, at least someone isn't arguing with him.]

Oh really... [One of Beelzebub's missing memories was about his goals back home? Huh.] Makes you wonder if that was by design.

It surely was.

[He wasn’t…really paying attention to what Adela was on about at the execution…but he got an idea.]

All for the illusion of a happy farm life.

[He says that, but…they had fun, didnt they?]

If that was the full and honest design, they should have kept it in the oven for a little longer. Left out the bit about killing each other to leave, perhaps?

[It might have been fun at times, but it was hardly sustainable.]

It does call their motives into question.

[Maybe something else is going on there. Does Beelzebub care, though?]

It doesn’t matter now. Nothing does.

Your New Life

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cw suicidal ideation

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