Terminal House

EXPLANATION OF TERMINAL HOUSE

Characters:
Kira
August
Riddle

If I were to do the descriptions of the characters in Terminal House before explaining the setting and situation, it would be incomprehensible. So here we go. XD;


First of all, TH is set in a universe between life and death, where souls that have had their life cut short (like an infant who dies during childbirth or at a very young age) are reincarnated into a body so they can prove themselves through life and find their "answer" so they can move on (think of life as a test, and if someone dies too early then they come here to take their test). This means that the apparent age and gender of the body they're reincarnated into has nothing to do with the age they died at. This is never explained in the story, I'm just telling you all.

The universe consists of one huge mansion, its grounds, and a huge wall around it. The main room in the mansion is an expansive library, with tons of other rooms and hallways and staircases built on like a labyrinth. The house is very hard to navigate, in fact it feels like the many hallways connect to completely different places each day.

Outside the house is a graveyard, where a person is born into the world.

Now I should explain.. this is a very lonely world. It is expansive, but the walls still prevent you from leaving. Also, there are no more than two people alive in this world at a time. The way this works is a never ending cycle, which is really hard to explain in an eloquent way, so excuse my unexciting wording here.
I'm just going to use the words "First"" and "Second" in this explanation.
The "First" is the one who has been there longer, and the "Second" is the newcomer. The First entered the world as an Second and become attached to the First that came before him, who was also once a Second, etc. A First takes care of the Second and they interact and learn about life together, and then the First finds his "answer" and leaves the world. His Second then becomes a First and waits for a new Second to be born, and the cycle repeats.
It's because this cycle involves complete switching of dominance roles in a relationship that all the characters in the story have to be male. /lolthatsmyexcuse

It is possible for a First to miss finding his answer however. If he stays stubborn, unwilling to open up to his Second or learn about life or love or anything, then he slowly corrodes into a "lost case" and loses his wings, taking on an incorporeal form like a ghost. Some lost cases flee the world in shame, some stay and bitterly haunt the mansion out of spite for those who succeed in finding the answer.

Each person is born into the world with a "demon" inside them, and a mark on their body somewhere that represents the demon (the mark can also be a way to write their name. Also, the mark can always be seen, no matter if it is covered by hair or clothing, it will show through). The demon represents their "sin", which is a fault they have to deal with in order to find their answer. The area of the body that houses the demon is sensitive, so most people cover it up with a special wrap that conforms itself tightly onto any surface it is applied to.
I have to elaborate though. Their "sin" isn't an all bad thing. Each one has its negative aspects and positive aspects.

Each person also has wings, which are normally too small to use for flying. A person's wings will grow when they feel great happiness or pleasure. They also become bigger slowly as the person grows.

It is also customary for a Second whose First has just left the world to carve the First's name (or mark) into one of the tombstones in the graveyard for remembrance.



The Raven

If you try to fly over the wall that surrounds the mansion, a group of crows apprehends you. The raven is their gruff leader. He seems to know a lot about how the world of TH works, but doesn't like talking about it. Kira actually succeeds in befriending him, which is quite a feat.


Servants

The "servants" are mysterious creatures that populate the mansion and do things like cleaning and serving food, for some reason. They can't speak, and they need that slip of paper attached to their masks to stay corporeal. One day when Kira had been drawing pictures because he found some crayons, he found a servant in a hallway, dissolving because its paper had fallen off. He put one of his drawings on the mask and the servant was restored (so it seems any slip of paper works). August thinks that they could be Lost Cases, but Kira disagrees, saying that they're too nice to be that.


Groundskeeper

He is, as his name suggests, the groundskeeper at the mansion. Just like the servants, he can't speak. He is about three times the height of an average person, making him look like a giant scarecrow. Even though he can't express emotion, you can tell he cares about his work because of how beautifully all the plants are kept.


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