curtainsdown | now let's skip the tears and start on the whole-

[You remember dying. Maybe the memory is clear and bright and your body still aches from the cause. Maybe it was fast enough that you didn't feel it and don't remember what you went through. But no matter how you went out you're still trapped here.

When you open your eyes it might take you a minute to recognize your surroundings. For the executed, it's your dressing room. For the victims, you startle awake in the place your body was discovered. But no matter where you are nothing is where you remember it. It's like everything has been picked up and moved to the other side of the room. The entire room has been perfectly mirrored from what it used to be and, upon leaving, it seems the rest of the opera house is just the same. If you remember one room being in the east wing, it's now in the west. If it was in the west, it's now in the east.

Welcome back to the Opera House, friends. Even in death you're still in the woods.]

WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 3 | WEEK 4 | WEEK 5

[ooc: Welcome to deadland, darlings! It's a perfectly mirrored version of the Opera House and each week, as new people die after new floors have been revealed, the stairwell doors will unlock and allow you to reach them. For example, week 3 victims will unlock floor 2 and so on and so forth. Also, all dead characters will wake up at their actual canon point.

Have fun because we have some fun things planned for you.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The what?

[Said more to himself than to her. Somehow he tears his gaze away from the trial below when Riley screams.]

Riley.

[He drops into his full commanding baritone, his voice ringing sharply above the cacophony below.]

Save your energy, it's not... We can't touch him, here.

We don't know that!

[ Why didn't she keep a knife on her at all times? Why couldn't she-- ]

I-I want to- we have to- he's going to kill Jeremy, if I don't do anything!!

We can't do anything in this room. Possessing Tad Cooper for just a few seconds had Richard nearly passed out last week.

[Sigyn stands, just in case Riley tries to do anything ~~that Sigyn herself tried to do last week~~ dumb.]

It'd only take a few seconds to launch him from his stupid, comfy box.

If it does anything at all! You stabbed him twice last week and he acted like nothing happened. At this point we don't even know if he's mortal.

It's... It's still... I c-c-can't watch this! It's worse than...than watching them all tear each other apart! I won't st-stand by anymore, I won't b-be that...that- that stupid little girl who can't do anything!

You don't have to watch this, but in this room we are helpless.

[It looks like it's physically painful for her to admit this.]

[ And it's the only room where they can see them...without any interference.

At this point, Riley has to laugh, and it's a broken, harsh thing. ] Then why are we even here?

I don't know.

[On the word 'know' her voice cracks just slightly]

But right now this is our best source of information, to figure out who's going to be here next so they don't have to wake up alone.

[ Her eyes are hot. The tears make it hard to see. She thinks Jeremy's- Christine's upset. Mephisto's holding her. Jeremy's not going to let anyone hold him, is he? ]

I- I was supposed to- I th-thought I could help. I thought I could help, b-but--

[ She's really done nothing, hasn't she? ]

I'm sorry. We'll figure out something this week, some way to get information for them, something to help them, I promise.

[ We're going to have to unpack this later, but Riley, with all this going on, just says: ]

I can't... I have to do something. Just- just one...single th-thing.

Go to Jeremy's room. Make sure he doesn't wake up alone.

...He won't.

We do know that.

Don't you think if we could have done something, that Sigyn would have saved Red?

[He sounds distraught, but not breaking. This is the second time he's attended a trial from this side, and it's not any easier.]

It took everything that I had just to possess Tad Cooper last time.

Then we- there are more of us, if we w-w-work together...!

[ Everyone's watching her break again. But she can't stop. Jeremy, he'd said--

She's not anyone's favorite person anymore. She can't let him get hurt. ]

It's not enough.

[He's used to not being able to do anything right. His fuckups outnumber his successes ten to one. He's been called a joke, a schmuck, a boob.

And he has to sit here and watch another teenager die. Someone else he liked.]

You don't have to stay and watch, if you'd rather go be there when he wakes up.

[ Riley shakes her head fiercely. ]

J- ...Jeremy watched me. [ Did he? ...The SQUIP, it could've- ] I'm not leaving him.

[His heart breaks for her. For Jeremy, for Christine, for Steven and Anne and everyone else down below. He's thankful he only had to vote once.

Below, the Phantom is calling the vote.

Richard nods.]

Then after... We'll go meet him together. Alright?

[ A moment...and a nod.

...She's still gonna try leaping down until a certain demon-thing stops her, but. ]

now let's skip the tears and start on the whole-

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