Wander Where You Wish.

You fly full speed towards the battle bus.

Hurtling towards the cursed creation, it gets closer. And closer. And closer.

You have a fleeting moment of hope, you’re going to make it! You are almost at the strange floating bus!

Then darkness hits.

All you can hear is a rapidly approaching heart beat, followed by an earsplitting roar.

Huh. Looks like maybe one of those god Wardens are still kicking around after all.

You zip over to the Slab Church. An impressive and colourful building, with closed doors.

Your not letting something a simple as wooden doors slow you! Slipping through a broken window, which was probably Red’s doing, you sneak inside.

Greeted by colourful candles, carpets, and glow berry vines decorating the main room, you glide around. There’s a sign up sheet on the alter and rows of pews leading up to it.

You split off from Red, who sets into town to go deliver her invitations.

Floating around you don’t immediately see any trouble. But that doesn’t mean you can’t look for it.

You think back on where interesting hijinks could happen.

A few things come to mind:

Noting Red’s unease with the “Slab Cult” you could always poke around the related church.

Remembering the previous night, you could investigate where the strange figure came from and disappeared to.

Still in the graveyard, now able to move as you wish since the rain cleared. Red did insinuating you could come with, however that is your decision.

Red walks back to her house while she speaks.

“Oh, Z? I dunno. She’s kind of been shut in after Cursed- after Curie came to town.”

Her gaze flicks to scattered remains of a house across from hers. She then looks hesitantly up towards the nearby mountain range.

“She lives up in the mountains now, so I just leave her mail at the post office. Maybe we’ll cross paths later though.”

Red continues into her house, to the study. She grabs the invitations she wrote and comes back to the front door.

“Yup! Good job! And look, the rains hopefully all done for the day!”

Red smiles, glancing across town trying to decide where to go from here.

“Hm. It’s still early, but I can drop off some invitations at least!“

She looks at all of you.

“Nope! Come on, I’m not going that easy on you!”

She laughs.

The rain finally stops, leaving the ground damp, but you can move around again!

Red walks over and picks back up both her helmets.

Red considers the idea before shaking her head.

“No, at least not long enough to get back home. Water seeps through the fabric. It might be better then direct contact for 6 seconds, but then I’d essentially be wearing clothing drenched in acid.”

“Alright! Let’s see what I can spy!”

She grins and takes out an old bronze spyglass. Looking around, she takes her time moving about so you can’t tell what items she’s zeroed in on.

“I don’t think- wait? Is it my cloak?”

Red readjusts the black cloak she definitely forgot she was wearing.

“I mean, the walls are dark grey, so I don’t think they count!”

Red argues, getting back into the game.

“I don’t want to say his name because I feel like he’ll show up Beetlejuice style, but there’s this black cat demon that pops up around town and likes ruining peoples lives.”

Red let’s the bow slacken after a moment, and moves the arrow into the rain, putting it out.

She takes a second, trying to calm herself down while also staring pointedly to conveying her annoyance

“Gods, you can’t just do that! Do you know how much trauma that cat has caused in the last few months alone! No wonder I’m jumpy!”

She sighs, heavily. Then looks back to Fish.

“Sorry about that. I blame her.”

Red shoots to her feet. Snatching her bow on the way up and drawing an arrow in a fluid motion.

“Where?!”

“Great! You chose one I could actually see! Thanks!”

Red smiles, happy for the light subject. She looks around, pausing to think of what would be the most obvious option.

Red glances over to you.

“Oh, jeez. I mean, that wasn’t a bad theory, but I get the confusion. Guess it’s time to have the ‘lost soul’ talk,”

She moves, changing how she sits to be more criss cross.

“Ok. So uh, whoopsy daisy’s, you’re all dead. But you’ve gathered that much! Which is good! Some souls take much longer to remember and cope with that. Props to you guys!”

She starts, trying to keep it light. You can tell she trying to figure out how to explain this with essentially children present.

“So, after you die, things get complicated. Because lost souls aren’t just everyday run of the mill dead people. If you were just a ghost, you’d be like my friend, Z.”

She pauses, weighing what to say and not say.

“You only come back like this under certain circumstances. It can be from dying suddenly or unexpectedly, having your life cut short before what would be considered your time. Sometimes, it’s just the amount of… well, trauma that happened when you died. And there’s been a handful of times where people were just insanely commited to seeing something through while alive, and that carried over in death.”

Thunder rumbles above head.

“If one of those happens, there’s a chance you come back as a lost soul, a shattered fragment of a ghost. Not everything is there. Memories, emotions, knowledge, they all can be affected to some degree. That’s why you’re called ‘lost souls’, you’re looking for something. It varies though. Some people come back remembering almost everything, and they have an easier time resolving things and moving on. Others don’t.”

Red notices the less then positive tone and decides to leave it there.

Red looks behind her, squinting at the window panes.

“Oh….. really? That’s… well ok then!”

She mutters to herself, before shrugging it off.