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

[stagemanagers]

[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.]

Comments

[37773972]

Huh.

[That.s...all he really has to say, as he accepts the flower with surprise. He looks down at it, touching it with his other hand]

I guess...I really fucked things up for you guys, then, huh. [It's light - self depreciating - but Riley, of all people, can probably tell that...there's quite a bit underneath that 'humor']

[isawallflower]

[ Her smile's the one to falter this time. ]

Uh. [ Eyes back on the ground. ] We could still receive things, that was...fine. Just...couldn't send any messages back.

[ And oh, did she try. ]

[37773972]

Maybe you could have...[What? Told him not to do it? He shakes his head, dismissing the thought]

...I'm guessing none of you moved the bottle of ether? Or knocked over the trash?

[isawallflower]

[ Maybe you could've done something right for once in your--

Riley shakes her head. ] We were trying to figure out how to tell you that, but...all we could do was get the lights. To...try and show the Phantom and the stupid Wizard we were still there.

[ She sighs in annoyance. ]

That stage is a menace. Just trying made me feel like I was gonna be sick.

[37773972]

...the lights went weird before, too. But none of you saw what happened, when...?

[When I won?]

[isawallflower]

[ Another shake of the head as she chances a look back up. ]

It...got all weird? Like- like we saw...Santana run at you, and then- then she was...yelling, at Mephisto. But it was hazy, like...far away. [ A moment- ] Was that...what happened before?

[37773972]

[In all honesty, he doesn't want to think much about what happened before. About the trial. But...he ends up taking a seat for this, leaning against a blank gravestone]

After...everything was over. When the Wizard appeared, and- thanked me. [And doesn't that have self-loathing in it.] When I told him when I wanted to go back, he said that he wasn't willing to let me drag everyone through it again, that he wouldn't go back, and...

[Pop. He makes a gesture with his hand.]

...glass. But I was still so angry, I could barely think straight.

[isawallflower]

[ Gee, the disgust in Stephen's tone is strong enough that Riley shivers. She hugs the bear close. ]

...He brought us here in the first place. What's he care if... Drag everyone through it, that's what he said?

[ Gross. Ugh. ]

Of course he thinks he's doing the right thing.

[37773972]

'I did what I had to do, and now it's over.' He didn't care you were children, he said...he'd always wanted to be a father. [Such. Hatred.]

1/2

[isawallflower]

[ ...Okay. She sets the bear down, actually, because- ]

A father? Is that- that what he thinks he has the- the right to fucking say, after--

[ Oh, dear. Her voice takes on the same raw edge it had, when she was cornered and recounting just all the ways she'd fucked up. ]

That's what he says?!

[ Everything feels hazy and far away again. Like the ocean in her ears. She automatically reaches for-- ]

2/2

[isawallflower]

[ ...Riley isn't wearing a utility belt with her knife on it, today. Riley decided...bringing that to the trial would've been a show of bad faith. But everything blurs, a bit, when you're dead.

Or...when you're her.

So, she's stunned when she brings up nothing. Stunned enough to be shaken back from her daze. ]

I don't... [ The world's spinning, like she'd just tried to reach through for a haunt, so she braces herself against the stone and sits, instead of kneels. Her head hurts. Why does her head still hurt, when she's dead? ] Ohh. I need a minute, sorry.

[37773972]

[He looks up sharply at that tone, because- hearing it from himself is one thing. But from Riley?...

He actually starts to get up, then- hesitates. Then;]

Can I help?

cw: ableist language

[isawallflower]

[ Reflexively, she slides a- well, an attempt at a smile on, but it's strained as she winces and rubs her head. ]

No? No, I- it...goes away, I just. Need to...stay grounded, or- s-something. [ The slight stutter sends a chill down her spine. But, she manages to raise her head to show that pained smile. ] Guess being dead doesn't mean I'm not still...you know. A few...crayons short, or...something.

[37773972]

...hey.

[And he - slowly - reaches to take one of her hands, if she'll let him.]

You don't need to talk like that.

[isawallflower]

[ She'll let him! Reluctantly. Eyes focusing again on the bear Mephisto gave her, voice distant. ]

Why not? It's true, isn't it? ...Someone who's...all there doesn't just. Kill girls she's known for years and act like everything's just...fine.

[37773972]

There's a difference between being sick and deluding yourself. [But he's not going to say his pain is worse than hers- he's not going to slight her by trying to diminish either of them. Instead, he squeezes her hand] You're going to get help, once all this is over, and...you'll get better. You'll get better because they deserve that from you. [His voice softens, a little pained again, but...perhaps for another reason. After all?

Riley has a future. He does not.]

[isawallflower]

[ Riley looks faintly at Stephen, disbelief evident on her face. ]

I- I’m going to jail. [ She hasn’t said it out loud. Not yet. Not until now. ] Do you...know, how long they put people away for, for murder? And...lying under oath, I did that too. [ She’s not...her gaze shifts, just a bit. It’s similar to how Jeremy would look to something just off to the side, but she’s not focusing on anything. ] Aggravated assault. Withholding evidence. Murder in the...second degree, but they can- can probably argue for first, that’s- even for a minor. If they charge me as a minor, New York’s iffy about that. [ Her voice breaks. ] Depends on your lawyer, maybe [ breath trapped in her throat, to an overwhelming degree ] Mom and Dad care enough to- to find one who'll get me a lighter sentence, so they don't have to deal with a kid in prison forever. Or—or maybe that'd be easier for them. [ A hollow, trembling laugh. At some point, a smile’s slipped onto her face and she can’t get rid of it, even if she wants to. ] I’m probably looking at 15 to life, you know, but maybe I can plead insanity, maybe that h-helps—

[ As she rambles, a frantic edge starts to creep into her voice, marked by a few quick hitches of breath. The weight of it’s been on her shoulders, for sure, but this is the first time since...well, since the week she went for the motive that it’s fully crushing her. ]

[37773972]

Riley. Riley. [He can't tell her it'll be okay, but he can try and catch her attention. To help her breath through the anxiety] Breathe, and listen to me. Yeah, you're going to jail, and yeah- it's going to be hard. But it's okay. Jail isn't the worst thing that can happen.

[A deep breath]

The worst that can happen is that you give up on yourself. Instead, I want you to promise me you'll look in to finding a therapist- talk to whatever lawyer you get, have them look in to it. [Another squeeze of his hand] You're worth helping. And if you can't hear it from me, Mephisto'd tell you the same thing.

[If...Mephisto knew how things worked, for them. But the helping part, that he'd definitely say.]

He loves you, so much. We love you. And you deserve every bit of it, even after all you've done.

[isawallflower]

[ His urging at least brings her back to herself, to the ground in front of her crypt. More than anything, she appears dazed at the reassurance. And then, tired. ]

I deserve...? [ It brings something else to mind. Something she can only mumble: ] I asked...what I did. To deserve all this. The...memory tampering and...everything. The Phantom said...he was surprised I'd argue.

[ She looks so small. She feels so small. ]

Part of me still...still thinks he's right.

[37773972]

[There's still a part of him that wants to scream, fuck the Phantom. But he doesn't. Instead, he moves forwards and hugs her]

We deserve different things, but- none of us deserved what happened in there. None of us. Not you, not me, not Steven, not Claudine, not - anyone.

[isawallflower]

[ Why? Why do they keep— ]

Sto- stop it. [ But she doesn't move away. She can't. ] Scream at me, tell me- tell me I'm screwed up, that- if- I'm going to be alone whatever happens, so stop- all of you, stop being so...!

[ She presses her forehead against Stephen's shoulder. She's saying this, and she should pull away. But she still doesn't. ]

[37773972]

[The thing is, he knows. He knows it won't be all right. He doesn't know that she can get the help she needs, and as for him...there's a shuddering breath even as he squeezes her. For a few moments, he's quiet, and then, in a soft voice-]

Any time tomorrow
We will lie and say we're fine
We'll say 'yes' when we mean 'no'
And any time tomorrow
The sun will cease to shine
There's a shadowman who told us so.

[He knows, Riley. He knows.]

[isawallflower]

[ For the second time in...however many hours, she's shaking in his arms. Tears in her eyes. She's so tired of it all.

Riley can't sing back. Or- the words won't come. Not as her shoulders hitch with another sob. ]

[37773972]

[He wants to comfort her. He wants, desperately, to convince her it'll be okay. Instead, he finds himself aching with her, the consequences of their actions real and vivid.]

Any time tomorrow
We will still go play a part
In a play we somehow know
But no other
Will ever know what's in our hearts
We have shadowmen, inside, we let them go.

[Sigyn had said she didn't think he was a monster. Maybe he isn't one, but he has one - everyone does. He and Riley, though...they gave the monsters control. And they can never forget it.]

[isawallflower]

[ ...Shadowmen, isn't that a way to put it? Her little, hissing voice, the gremlin lurking in her head. Do it, fix it, fight, drowning out the crying little girl begging for help.

Riley doesn't like to think about it. The whispers urging her to kill. The empty feeling in her mind, like fog or static, when she took a knife and-

It suffocates her.

One of her hands curls at Stephen's shirt. The other tries to push him away. She swallows a sob. ]

Oh no, let go of my hand.
Oh no, not now, I will descend.
It came to me and grew.
Or...was it me who came to you...?
Shadowman.

[ Riley wanted it, an out. A way to fix everything. And, both times, she'd chosen to throw herself and everyone else into the fire to do so. There's something inside her... Something that thought it was a great idea to kill people she knew, and cared about. ]